Assam govt mulls sharing board exam answer scripts of Class X students

Move being considered for increasing transparency in evaluation process

Assam Education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday said he plans to return the answer scripts of Class X board examination to the parents of the students to bring transparency in the evaluation process.

"We are thinking to return the answer scripts of Class X exam to the parents. This is not immediately possible, but we want to do it in the long-run. We want to be transparent," Sarma said at a press conference in Guwahati.

He said the committee formed to examine the grace marks controversy of the Board of Secondary Education, Assam (SEBA), has submitted its report and the government has decided to accept the recommendations.

"Award of grace marks be restricted only for those students who fail to score the minimum qualifying marks by marginal points of score (1-5 marks) and is to be decided by the Board. Facility of grace marks should be limited to a maximum of three subjects for a student," the report said.

The committee, comprising Vice Chancellors of four universities, also recommended that moderation process be carried out through established procedure based on rigorous statistical analysis.

"There should not be any confidentiality with regard to moderation and award of grace mark," the report opined.

The committee observed that moderation of marks so far has not been done by SEBA through application of established principles as done in many countries.

"There has been striking rise in the pass percentage of the students over the last 15 years or so. The proportion of successful students with extraordinary performance has also shot up during this period," the report said.

On May 8, Sarma, who was also the Education minister during the last Congress government, had shocked everyone by revealing in the Assam Assembly that the pass percentage of students in the matriculation exam conducted by the state board was being manipulated every year to show a better picture of the education system.

He had said a meeting of the SEBA always takes place before the declaration of results and a resolution is adopted to hike the pass percentage every year in consultation with the government of that particular time.