CBSE scraps same-day evaluation of OMR sheets at exam centre

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has decided to discontinue the practice of evaluating answer sheets on the day of the exam at the examination centre itself for the remaining part of the ongoing first-term board examinations for Classes X and XII. The Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) sheets filled by examinees will now be sent to the regional office of the CBSE for evaluation, a circular from the board read.

“All the centre superintendents and observers will sign on the sealed parcel and will mention the time of packing also. Once OMRs are packed and sealed, the same will be dispatched to the concerned regional office,” the circular from the CBSE stated.

This year, CBSE introduced the OMR system for board exams and reduced the duration of exams to 90 minutes. The first term of the CBSE exams for Class XII began on November 16, while the Class X exams began a day later. So far, the OMR sheets were manually evaluated by teachers at the exam centres itself.

All through the examinations, the board has tweaked its evaluation regulations, attempting to minimise the role of local teachers in evaluating answer sheets of their own students.

According to the new guidelines, students should be inside the exam centre by 10.45am. Any student who reaches the centre late will be frisked before entering the hall.

CBSE will send password mails to schools and operation code at 10.45am. The schools need to make sure that question papers are printed within the stipulated period.

This year, the number of exam centres were also more than doubled, from 6,000 to around 14,000, to maintain social distancing norms properly and to let most students write their examinations inside their home schools rather than traveling to a different location.

The board has received several complaints regarding the new format since the examinations for Classes X and XII began on November 16.