Bhubaneswar, Jan. 30:The state government today invited bidders for its e-evaluation project, leaving stakeholders, including the teachers, worried barely four weeks before the Plus Two examinations by the Council of Higher Secondary Examination.

The department of higher education has been talking about e-evaluation project for quite some time to ensure error free evaluation of the answer sheets. Nearly three lakh students will take the tests scheduled from March 2. People have questionedthe decision and the preparedness of the authorities for computerised examination system.

'It's a huge exercise. There is everything from procurement of infrastructure and setting them in place, apart from training teachers and delivering error-free results. The time is too insufficient. Ultimately when the students come up with errors in their sheets, the teachers will become scapegoats,' said Sudha Samantray, a teacher.

'You cannot expect teachers, who have still been evaluating with pen and paper, to immediately switch over to screen with as much ease and speed. There will certainly be issues. The biggest concern of all is that the teachers are yet to be trained. How is the government planning to go about with this experiment playing with the career of our children, who have been day and night preparing for their exams?' asked Himanshu Sarangi, a parent.

The Information Technology (IT) persons, who had been implementing various automation projects of the higher education department in the past, have apprehended that the ambitious project might turn out to be a 'disastrous one'.

They had even suggested that the department should go about the project in a phase-wise manner - either implementing it for the supplementary exams alone or for the vocational course.

In the advertisement brought out today, the department asked interested parties to take part in the bidding process for the selection of service provider to design and develop a process for the e-evaluation of the Plus Two answer books for the session 2014-15.

The service provider will be responsible for scanning and digitising the answer booklets (32 pages), along with the on-screen (e-evaluation) marking on the answer book images.

Technical experts feared that the decision of conducting the e-evaluation for all the candidates might turn out to be a huge mess.'Inexperience and the rush to implement the e-evaluation system can ruin the future of so many students,' said a senior official at one of the IT agencies.

Council chairman Basudev Chattoi said he would do whatever the department directed the council. 'The thirty evaluation centres will be provided all the necessary infrastructure, and teachers will carry out the evaluation there,' he said.

A budgetary allocation of Rs 5 crore for conducting the e-valuation this academic calendar has also been made.

Earlier, the council employees had criticised the state government's decision to go for e-evaluation and threatened agitation.