9,218 teachers fined Rs 1.54 cr for committing errors in exam assessment

More than 9,000 schoolteachers in Gujarat were slapped with cumulative fine of Rs 1.54 crore over a period of two years for committing errors in totalling marks during the evaluation of Classes X and XII board exam answer sheets, the state Assembly was informed on Tuesday.

Responding to a query by Congress MLA Kirit Patel during Question Hour, state education minister Kuber Dindor admitted that as many as 9,218 teachers - 3,350 of Class X and 5,868 of Class XII - had committed errors in calculating marks during the assessment of board exam answer sheets in 2022 and 2023.

As per the written reply tabled in the House, the state government had slapped a cumulative fine of Rs 1.54 crore on these teachers. The average fine comes to around Rs 1,600 per teacher. Of these 9,218 erring teachers, 6,561, including 2,563 who had examined answer sheets of Class X and 3,998 of Class XII, have already deposited a little over Rs 1 crore.

As many as 2,657 teachers, including 787 of Class 10 and 1,870 of Class XII, were yet to deposit a fine of Rs 53.97 lakh, stated the reply. To recover the pending dues from teachers who committed errors in the board exam of March 2022, the state education department has contacted them through their school management and District Education Officer concerned.

In case of teachers who committed errors in evaluating answer sheets of the board exam conducted in March 2023 and were yet to submit the penalty, the department has issued one recovery notice to them, said Dindor.

To avoid any dispute, the Education Minister said penalty was imposed on erring teachers only after they were shown their errors in person.

To avoid such errors going unchecked, the department appoints a verifier in each evaluation team deployed at assessment centres.