Students and parents check out the HSLC results. File picture

Guwahati, July 15: The Board of Secondary Education, Assam has chalked out a roadmap to do away with its alleged faulty evaluation system.

Towards this end, the board has sought public suggestions and recommendations in writing to work out a scientific and modern evaluation methodology for lakhs of students who sit for the matriculation examination every year.

Seba chairperson Shantikam Hazarika told The Telegraph that suggestions could be sent to the board through various ways, including the Internet. Hazarika said he has already received a few good suggestions through the Internet.

He said Seba would go through the suggestions and ideas sincerely and implement those found to be feasible for the board.

Hazarika said one could write to him personally highlighting their ideas or suggestions on the subject.

Seba has been facing sharp criticism from various quarters allegedly for not allotting “deserving marks” to students in Matric, the state’s most important school examinations.

There have been instances in the past when Seba was dragged to court by candidates for poor allocation of marks, which had put their careers at stake.

“The board is aware of complaints and criticisms about its evaluation system. We will have to give serious thought to find out whether these criticisms are justified or not. It will also be unfair to follow the evaluation system of Central Board of Secondary Education blindly since the background of Seba is different from that of the central board,” Hazarika said.

He said Seba would have consultations with various stakeholders to introspect on its strengths and weaknesses and work out an effective evaluation system.

Refusing to divulge details, Hazarika said Seba would work on a system to evaluate each student’s overall aca-demic performance at the school level, instead of mere-ly allotting marks on the answer scripts of Matric examinees.

Seba secretary L.N. Sarma said the board has decided to hold frequent workshops and meetings with senior, experienced as well as young teachers on how to ensure a pragmatic and scientific evaluation of students sitting for their Matric exam. He said frequent interactions would help evaluators clear their doubts and rectify their mistakes while examining answer scripts.

“Modern training of Seba employees is also very important because they are involved in the evaluation system. We will try to use more technology in the evaluation system so that man-made errors could be avoided. The board will fully computerise its examination branch,” Sarma said.

The board has also decided to follow various recommendations of the Council of Boards of School Education.

“The Council of Boards of School Education provides a common platform for mutual consultation to reinforce the quality of school education. It provides support to its member boards across the country to bring about changes in various fields, including examination reforms. So it will be a sensible move on the part of Seba to implement some of these recommendations,” a Seba official said.