Chennai: Lack of adequate step marks coupled with a stringent evaluation have caused several CBSE class 12 students to rethink opting for revaluation — applications for which commenced on Tuesday.This year, 4.04 lakh students had applied for about 11.31 lakh scanned copies of their answer sheets. Students and teachers, who analysed scanned copies, say that this year, grace marks for steps were minimal and full marks were deducted for numericals where the final answers were wrong — contrary to the practice observed until last year, when teachers corrected answers manually.This year, the CBSE had introduced on-screen marking for class 12 evaluation — where students’ answer sheets were scanned and uploaded onto a digitally secured portal. The correction of answer sheets was done digitally based on a marking scheme (an answer key deciding the marks to award for every answer).School heads that TOI spoke to said that a digital process, introduced for the first time, tied evaluators’ hands. “Normally, teachers tend to be a little liberal, especially for difficult examinations. Since this is an entirely new mode of evaluation, teachers did not want to take a chance and stuck to the book, awarding marks only as per the marking scheme,” a principal said, adding that chances of grace marks being awarded for revaluation was extremely less.The marking scheme was also very stringent. “Take electromagnetic induction for instance. A student had simply mentioned it as ‘a change in magnetic flux has resulted in the electromagnetic force’ — which is essentially the same meaning. But no marks have been awarded. But a student can and must fight for even 0.5 marks, if the need arises,” said R S Shanti, principal, Zion and Alwin Group of Schools.Parents, however, are sceptical too. “There is also the risk that during revaluation, any potential mark for steps awarded minimally would be taken off, resulting in dip in scores. So, it is prudent to apply only for questions that you are absolutely sure of getting full marks,” a parent of a student from KSN Higher Secondary School said.. Educationists, too, feel that the marks are unlikely to go up exponentially after revaluation. “The fact is, CBSE has adopted a new system (OSM) and would want to prove that the system functioned well. Moreover, the correction was done in a stringent manner. There is no guarantee that revaluation will be any more lenient,” Balaji Sampath, educationist said.
