Intermediate candidates at Graduate School College for Women on Tuesday. Picture by Bhola Prasad

Matriculation evaluators cannot check more than 40 copies a day according to a stern directive from the HRD secretary, East Singhbhum district education officer Ashok Kumar Sharma said at a meeting in Sonari on Tuesday.

Over 100 principals and teachers attended the meeting at Bharat Sevashram Sangha to learn about this year’s evaluation guidelines formulated by Jharkhand Academic Council (JAC) and state HRD.

Marking answer-sheets — a fortnight-long process — starts from March 21. The state board, which has sought active cooperation from all the 24 districts to ensure fair evaluation for matriculation aspirants, has told examiners not to mark copies in a rush.

So, if 40 answer-sheets is the upper ceiling for evaluators — 20 each before and after lunch hours — head examiners will check 20 and re-check five copies at random to monitor quality.

Four schools of Jamshedpur will be evaluation centres. These are Jamshedpur High School, Sakchi High School, Gurunanak Girls High School, also in Sakchi and Hindustan Mitra Mandal, Golmuri.

About 767 evaluators, including head examiners, will be engaged in marking copies for 15 days starting March 21.

There are other directives to ensure transparency. Use of cellphones or other hi-tech gadgets won’t be entertained on centre premises.

All evaluators will also get identity cards and appointment letters to eliminate the possibility of imposters.

“The education department will ensure a fair evaluation system without undue or extra pressure on examiners. This will also maintain quality of marking. Then, of the 40 copies to be marked per day, evaluators have to equally divide the quantity before and after lunch. Exceeding the set limit by half a copy is not allowed. The state HRD has issued very strict directives and the JAC is bullish on maintaining quality of evaluation this time,” said district education officer Sharma.

The district education department had already organised a workshop on evaluation and quality teaching in January this year to tell teachers the correct method to mark an answer-sheet. Resource persons at the workshop were principals from reputable private English medium schools.

“An evaluation workshop has been organised in Ranchi on March 23,” Sharma added.

Intermediate exam evaluation will start on April 2.