Bhubaneswar, April 7: Lack of technological competence may not be the reason for keeping the teachers out of online evaluation, as most of the them, who attended the two-day training on the process, are computer-friendly and even use high-end gadgets regularly.

Since yesterday, the examiners were being trained by evaluating dummy answer sheets to get a hang of the digital system. The training ended today and the evaluation will start from tomorrow.

"The teachers are not scared of using computers, as most of the 1,500 examiners were already adept with the system. Many of them doubt that any error, done inadvertently, will lead them to problems. However, they do not want to be held accountable for any technological error," said a senior technical official.

Many examiners do not want to be identified for erroneous evaluation that was earlier not possible during manual evaluation. As many as 336 teachers have been debarred from the examiners' panel for the Plus Two examinations this year for their alleged incompetence during last year's evaluation.

However, the technical officials, engaged in the e-evaluation process, see this as an advantage. "The examiners understand that it will be much easier to track down the erring teacher due to the digital system. This would be relatively difficult if the answer sheets were evaluated manually," a technical official said.

Subhashree Jena, a 45-year-old Plus Two teacher, is an examiner being trained for the e-evaluation that will begin tomorrow. Jena has a Facebook account and several email accounts. "We bought a personal computer for our daughter about eight years ago. She taught me the basics. Besides, our colleges were computerised four years back and every one there knows xhow to operate it," Jena said.

Bimal Sahoo, a science teacher, is also well versed in computer applications and uses them regularly. "We use the Internet to keep a track of workshops and seminars in institutes," said Sahoo.

"It will be wrong to judge that the state is not ready for the e-evaluation yet. Colleges and teachers were equally apprehensive about the e-admission process when it was launched five years ago. However, it brought many good changes. A lot of fake colleges and ones with almost zero admissions were tracked and action was taken against them. We must not hesitate to explore the benefits of technology," said an official.

"Some teachers, who do not want the e-evaluation to take place, are spreading rumours just for the sake of it. Technical snags may happen but everything can be sorted out," the official said.

The Council of Higher Secondary Education clarified that the examiners, who were being trained for the e-evaluation here in February, were "computer-friendly science lecturers, readers and college principals". "The teachers are proficient in computers and there is no reason they should be scared of technology," said Basudeb Chattoi, the council chairman.

"Teachers from remote districts may not be adept in computers but the training is very easy. Any body can pick up the skills within hours. They simply have to enter the marks on the scanned answer sheets instead of the manual sheets," said Chhatoi. He added that there had been positive reports from all centres today.