Jalandhar, November 26
In an effort to break the alleged nexus between education officials and school teachers, the Punjab School Education Board has decided to depute teachers directly as examiners in the forthcoming examinations this session.
Dr Harbans Singh Sidhu, Chairman of the board, said this during an interaction with media persons at the Desh Bhagat Yaadgaar Hall, where he was invited to attend a conference organised jointly by the Punjab Academy of Social Sciences, Literature and Culture, and the Punjabi Bhasha Academy here today.
Dr Sidhu said the decision was taken in view of the reports that some District Education Officers (DEOs) were trying to appoint their favourite teachers to such duties for their own vested interests. But, he said, to break the nexus, the board had already prepared the data pertaining to the staff available in the schools of different districts. The teachers’ qualification and experience as examiners had also been assessed so that they could be directly appointed by the board.
Dr Sidhu, however, said since some examiners abstained from duty, the board would have to take the services of the DEOs for sending other examiners to the centres.
Stating that the formulation of five sets of papers had not really helped in eliminating the instances of copying in examination, he said there would only be three sets of papers this time. The difficulty level of all sets would be the same, he added.
The chairman said he was planning to make table-marking compulsory in checking centres from this session. He said because many teachers were in the habit of taking answersheets home and getting these checked from their family members, including their children, discrepancies in evaluation were common.
Keeping in view the large number of copying cases, particularly in border areas, the chairman said the board might reduce the time period of “reading” the question papers for all examinees from 15 minutes to five or 10 minutes. He said instructions had also been given to paper-setters to keep the papers short so that the examinees, who did not have a good command over language but knew the answers, got sufficient time to attempt the papers.
Dr Sidhu said he had planned to have two levels of examination for mathematics and science subjects in Class X, the first easy and the second one tougher. He said the syllabus for both levels would be common, but the students would have an option to appear for either of the two levels of examination. He said this was being done as the number of failures in both subjects was high. He said the case was pending before the Ministry of Human Resources and Development.
Jalandhar, November 26