St Xavier’s Collegiate School has started the practice of students writing only roll numbers and not their names on answer scripts in the school exams for a “fair evaluation,” and to cut down on the possibility of teachers’ bias “if any”.

The school introduced this change in the term exams for Classes VI to XII, which ended recently.

Teachers will not know the identity of the student while correcting the answer script, a school official said.

“A certain degree of anonymity is required because teachers are human beings and they, too, can have their likes and dislikes. This would ensure a fair evaluation...,” said Father Roshan Tirkey, principal of the school.

This will give the students and parents confidence that any pre-conceived notion would not play in the back of a teacher’s mind while correcting the answer script, he said.

In both ICSE (Class X) and ISC (Class XII), conducted by the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), examinees write only their unique ID (identity number) and no names. Examinees also cannot write the school’s name in the answer scripts.

However, in most schools, students have to write their names in the answer scripts for the school exams.

“Often teachers are opinionated and carry the pre-conceived notions about a student while correcting the paper,” said Joseph Chacko, English teacher of a south Calcutta school.

“The preconceived notions about students raise doubt about their hard work in a teacher’s mind if a student is below-average and a teacher tends to think it is not the child’s work. Similarly, a teacher is surprised if a good student does not meet the expectations. Anonymity in an answer script will even out these differences.”

Teachers at St Xavier’s Collegiate School while correcting answer scripts will make a note of the “area of improvement” for each student for each subject, an official said.

The note will be with the teachers and the students will be told about where they need to improve, said the official.

Both students and teachers will understand how close he is to what he is learning in the classroom and what he is writing in an exam, Father Tirkey said. “If teachers point out the mistakes and areas of improvement of a student in the first term exams he will have the next few months to improve himself before he writes the final term.”