‘Better results, less cheating’; Sarjerao Jadhav, President, Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education on this year’s HSC and the revamp of revaluation.

Pune Mirror: Pune: Sunday,May27,2012.

·  This year onwards, the revaluation system of the Maharashtra Board has been changed. What are the changes and what would the repercussions be ?

The revaluation will not be done by the Board from this year. Students can either obtain copies of their answersheets from the Board under the RTI Act, or by filling up a form available at the local Board office.

The Board will charge Rs 400/subject for photocopies and students will receive an SMS with directions for collecting them. It hasn’t yet been decided on how to hear student appeals, but verification of the marks allotted will be done, once the student pays the fees

·   What if a student wants to apply for class improvement ?

There is already a limited demand from students for class improvement, which was restricted only for those aiming to get admission in engineering colleges.

But engineering colleges have now brought their minimum requirement at HSC to 45 per cent, hence there will be no demand for class improvement. Instead of going for revaluation, these students can re-appear for the examinations.

·   Until when can students apply for receiving photocopies of the answersheets ?

Students or parents can apply by paying fees of Rs 400 on or before June 8.

·  The pass percentage in the state has come down from 78.38% in 2010 to 67.94% this year. Could you explain why ?

Yes, but this year’s results have gone up by 2.33% compared to last year (65.61%). The percentage of passing has gone down because of the strict measures adopted to curb copying. The number of copying incidents have reduced by half, as compared to 2011. There were 4,163 such incidents in 2011 and only 2,529 this year.

Even the number of proxies came down to 13 this year from 20 last year. The Board had formed 245 flying squads and the same number of sitting squads and sought police help to nab culprits. Video shooting was also done in 425 centres.

·   How has the teachers’ strike affected the evaluation process this year ?

It did affect initially, but then we decided to include teachers with good records and three years of experience, for evaluation so there was no delay