Scholarship exam answersheets to be available online: Maharashtra State Council of Examination

Updated on: Tuesday, November 29, 2011

The Maharashtra State Council of Examination, a statutory body that conducts examinations for educational and vocational purposes, has decided to put up answer sheets of the middle school (std IV) and high school (std VII) scholarship exams online from the next academic year.

Speaking to the TOI about the new arrangement, Mahavir Mane, commissioner of the council said, "Every year on an average 22 lakh students appear for the scholarship examinations comprising 12 lakh students for middle school scholarship exam and 8.5 lakh for high school. Besides, 75,000 students appear for national talent search (NTS) exam and 85,000 students appear for National Means-Cum-Merit Scholarship (NMMS) exam. Thus, we get massive data every year.

When the results are announced, some parents who are not satisfied with the result of their wards seek photocopies of the answer sheets through right to information act. Though we cooperate, parents and the students are not satisfied.

Hence we have decided to put the answer sheets online which will enhance transparencyand impartiality in assessment."

"We have limited staff to handle the massive process of paper checking. So we use Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) machines to check the answer papers. There will be a school specific arrangement for making the answer sheets available on the website so that students and parents can have a self assessment of the answer sheets by comparing them with the model answer sheets designed by experts," he added. This arrangement will help students get printouts of the answer sheets.

About the NTS examination, Mane said, "About 1,000 students are selected for NTS scholarships across the country. About 30% of the selected students are from Maharashtra and the number is increasing every year. Students from small towns and rural area are also scoring high percentages. From next academic year, online answer sheets will be available for middle and high school scholarship examinations. A server will be made available to handle the job. Online application procedure for all the exams except middle school scholarship exam has been implemented and covers the entire state."

Times of India

Scholarship exam answersheets to be available online: Maharashtra State Council of Examination

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