The Times of India; Bharat Yagnik & Paul John; Thursday, August 11,2011.
Ahmedabad: The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that students of class X and XII, professional courses and job recruitment tests including public service exams that are aggrieved with their examination scores can now demand a copy of their evaluated answer sheets under Right to Information (RTI).
The Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB) and individual universities in the state have already started feeling the pressure and the work at hand. Apart from the increasing number of litigation cases concerning dispute over evaluation of marks, authorities are worried about storage of answer sheets and the need of a mechanism that would ensure students get a copy of their marksheets on time. This development may also affect the semester evaluation system introduced at the university and the grading system introduced in class X.
“In case of science subjects like Maths and Physics, a model answer sheet is circulated among evaluators and marks are assigned for each step. A student can demand the model sheet and his answer sheet, and can move court if evaluated wrongly,” said a senior GSHSEB source. The case also stands for university-level exams.
Storage of the answer sheets poses another problem for education officials. “Each set of answer sheets weighs 250 grams. There would be 72 lakh answer sheets, which means finding space to store 22,000 metric tones of answer sheet booklets,” said a senior GSHSEB official.
Parimal Trivedi, Gujarat University vice-chancellor, said, “There will be 34,000 tones of answer sheets that would require a place for storage. dragged to court if there is any mistake.”
“The Supreme Court judgment will become a law soon. All education institutions will now have to look for storage and make administrative changes,” said GSHSEB director, Hasmukh Adhia.
Today, under the Avlokan scheme, a student can access his or her answersheet by paying a fee of Rs 300 to GSHSEB. The department may have to abandon this system after the new RTI rules. Students will pay just Rs 20 for the application and Rs 2 per page of the answersheet as stipulated by the law. According to a senior official, GSHSEB will face revenue loss. For applicants of GujCET, however, individual answersheets by book-post at Rs 50 from this year.
WHAT IS LEFT TO BE ANSWERED:
The education department fears there would be more litigations over evaluation
Whether a third person can access any student’s marksheet
Lack of administrative set-up and a new storage space to handle RTI applications and answersheets
Whether it is mandatory to reveal names of evaluators under RTI to applicants
Lack of clarity over of RTI law in case of semester system across state universities and grading system in class X exams
The time period for storage of answersheets as they are classified under miscellaneous records.
The Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB) and individual universities in the state have already started feeling the pressure and the work at hand. Apart from the increasing number of litigation cases concerning dispute over evaluation of marks, authorities are worried about storage of answer sheets and the need of a mechanism that would ensure students get a copy of their marksheets on time. This development may also affect the semester evaluation system introduced at the university and the grading system introduced in class X.
“In case of science subjects like Maths and Physics, a model answer sheet is circulated among evaluators and marks are assigned for each step. A student can demand the model sheet and his answer sheet, and can move court if evaluated wrongly,” said a senior GSHSEB source. The case also stands for university-level exams.
Storage of the answer sheets poses another problem for education officials. “Each set of answer sheets weighs 250 grams. There would be 72 lakh answer sheets, which means finding space to store 22,000 metric tones of answer sheet booklets,” said a senior GSHSEB official.
Parimal Trivedi, Gujarat University vice-chancellor, said, “There will be 34,000 tones of answer sheets that would require a place for storage. dragged to court if there is any mistake.”
“The Supreme Court judgment will become a law soon. All education institutions will now have to look for storage and make administrative changes,” said GSHSEB director, Hasmukh Adhia.
Today, under the Avlokan scheme, a student can access his or her answersheet by paying a fee of Rs 300 to GSHSEB. The department may have to abandon this system after the new RTI rules. Students will pay just Rs 20 for the application and Rs 2 per page of the answersheet as stipulated by the law. According to a senior official, GSHSEB will face revenue loss. For applicants of GujCET, however, individual answersheets by book-post at Rs 50 from this year.
WHAT IS LEFT TO BE ANSWERED:
The education department fears there would be more litigations over evaluation
Whether a third person can access any student’s marksheet
Lack of administrative set-up and a new storage space to handle RTI applications and answersheets
Whether it is mandatory to reveal names of evaluators under RTI to applicants
Lack of clarity over of RTI law in case of semester system across state universities and grading system in class X exams
The time period for storage of answersheets as they are classified under miscellaneous records.
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