Evaluation of ICSE and ISC answer scripts are going to be decentralised this year as a precaution against the spread of the coronavirus.
Examiners are going to be allowed to evaluate the solution scripts at home, the council said on Wednesday.
The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations, which conducts the ICSE and ISC exams, wrote to the examiners of both board exams about the “revised procedure for evaluation of answer scripts”, keeping in mind the “health and safety” of the examiners.
“In view of the coronavirus spreading across the country and with much uncertainty and speculation within the air, the council has decided to review its policy of centralised evaluation, keeping in mind the health and safety of all our examiners, which is of utmost priority,” states the letter from Gerry Arathoon, the chief executive and secretary of the council.
“The evaluation are going to be decentralised and therefore the examiners are going to be required to mark the solution scripts at their respective residences,” the letter said.
The examiners will, however, need to attend the evaluation centre to debate the marking scheme and collect the solution scripts on the primary day and later upload the marks and submit the corrected answer scripts.
The decentralisation of the evaluation process is to be implemented with immediate effect, the letter states. it’ll be followed for all ICSE papers.
Evaluation of ICSE papers is scheduled to start on Thursday and is predicted to be over by April 28. For ISC, the revised procedure are going to be applicable to subjects like chemistry paper 1, fashion designing paper 1, history, education paper 1, computing paper 1, electricity and electronics, geometrical & mechanical drawing, geometrical & building drawing, sociology, biology paper 1, geography paper 1, business studies, home science paper 1, elective English, psychology, art papers 1 to five , biotechnology paper 1, commerce, mathematics, mass media and communication.
The evaluation of ISC answer scripts began on February 24 and is predicted to be over by April 20. for a few subjects, only a few of days of evaluation are left.
The chief examiner/co-chief examiner/examiner coordinator of an evaluation centre will meet all the examiners for a brief while on the primary day of evaluation to debate the finalised marking scheme, evaluate dummy scripts, give necessary instructions to the examiners and hand over the boxes of answer scripts, consistent with the letter. It’ll be the examiner’s responsibility to securely transport the scripts home.
“If any examiner is absent, the solution scripts apportioned thereto examiner should be reapportioned by the chief examiner, co-chief examiner/ examiner coordinator amongst this examiners on the primary day itself and a record of an equivalent should be kept by them,” the letter reads.
On the Judgment Day of evaluation, all examiners need to take the corrected answer scripts “safely, securely packed” to the evaluation centre and hand them over to the chief examiner/co-chief examiner/examiner coordinator, a council official said quoting the letter.
“All other confidential material given to the examiner ie. question paper, marking scheme, etc should be submitted also ,” the letter states.
The chief examiner/co-chief examiner/examiner coordinator will check all the boxes of marked scripts and hand them over to the designated courier.
