The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras will depute at least two faculty members and support staff to assist the CBSE in resolving the ongoing technical issues related to the revaluation process, IIT Madras Director V Kamakoti said on Monday.
The faculty is being deputed following instructions from Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan to depute teams of professors and technical experts from IIT-Madras and IIT-Kanpur to examine all technical issues reported since the rollout of this year's post-examination re-evaluation services and assist the CBSE in ensuring a glitch-free process.
Responding to a PTI query, Director Kamakoti said the deputed team has experience in handling large-scale web portals and related hardware and software infrastructure.
"A couple of faculty or staff will be deputed, who have experience in handling large-scale web portals and related hardware or software infrastructure," he said.
“Their primary role is to perform a root-cause analysis and suggest quick remedies, if needed, followed by long-term solutions that will ensure a robust platform for the children,” the director added.
The institute said the duration of the team's association would depend on the "root causes" identified during the analysis. "They will be associated till the platform becomes robust," Kamakoti stated.
The CBSE recently faced criticism from students and parents over technical glitches, payment failures and access-related issues during the verification and re-evaluation process.
Massive server disruption due to heavy traffic and deductions ranging between Rs 8,000 and Rs 67,000 instead of Rs 100 per subject were among the key issues faced by students applying for scanned marksheets on May 21 and 22. Some users also reported instances where payments lower than Rs 100 were deducted.
Top education officials on May 17 announced a major overhaul in the re-evaluation process, including a reduction in fees. The fee for viewing answer sheets was slashed to Rs 100 from Rs 700, validation of sheets to Rs 100 from Rs 500, while the fee per question was reduced to Rs 25 from Rs 100.
Earlier, the education ministry announced that an expert team from IIT Madras and IIT Kanpur will implement focused technological improvements of the systems and technical workflow and will specifically examine portal stability and server performance.
"The team will also examine the overall IT Infrastructure robustness and assist in taking corrective measures to ensure that login authentication/ user access systems/ payment gateways are accurate and in order," the ministry said.
Pradhan reiterated that "student interests remain paramount" and that all necessary corrective measures need to be undertaken by CBSE on priority to ensure a "transparent, efficient and student-friendly system", the ministry added.
Four public sector banks roped in Pradhan also held discussions with finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on the payment-related issues.
“During the discussion, it was decided that four Public Sector Banks - State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank and Indian Bank - will assist CBSE in strengthening its payment gateway infrastructure and necessary integration with the post-examination services portal,” another release from the ministry said.
The banks will enable CBSE to put in place robust payment protocols to ensure timely payments, address payment glitches and facilitate automatic refunds for excess payments, if any.
Pradhan also directed CBSE to undertake a complete overhaul of its payment gateway system.
The release added, “It is envisaged that the coordinated efforts with the Ministry of Finance and Public Sector Banks shall ensure seamless digital transactions, improved payment gateway stability and a smooth experience for students availing CBSE re-evaluation and related services.”
On May 24, CBSE had announced that excess amounts deducted would be refunded automatically to the same payment methods used for the transaction. Those who had paid less will be informed individually if any balance amount is required to be paid.
A major controversy broke out due to the On Screen Marking (OSM) system (online marking system) adopted for evaluation of answer sheets this year after results were declared on May 13, with thousands of students stating that their marks were much lower than expected. The overall pass percentage also fell from 88.39 per cent to 85.2 per cent this year.