To increase the pass rate in schools run by Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC), the civic body’s education department has decided to evaluate the mid-year term exam answer sheets of Class X and XII students in a centralised manner. The test papers are currently being evaluated at the respective schools.

The initiative is aimed at assessing the students’ performance more accurately during the course of the academic year and improve the overall result in public exams, a circular issued by the corporation's education department said, stated a report by The New Indian Express.

According to officials, the new system has been introduced as there is a concern about teachers being liberal in evaluating the term papers of students in their own schools, which results in misleading assessment of performance.

The circular states that assistant education officers will monitor the evaluation of answer sheets, which will take place at the higher secondary schools located in Nungambakkam, from July 22 to August 2.

Headmasters have been instructed to send the answer sheets to the respective evaluation centre, and teachers have been asked to participate without fail.

The evaluation process for each subject will take two days for Class X and up to four days for Class XII.

Headmasters and teachers, however, have expressed concern as the exercise may affect their academic schedule.

The headmaster of a higher secondary school said teachers were already struggling to complete the syllabus within the stipulated time.

With centralised evaluation being implemented for only GCC-run schools, students of these schools will miss out on two to four days of teaching every term since the teachers will have to report at the evaluation centre.

At present, teachers evaluate the papers making use of the time during their leisure periods, he said.

Moreover, the deployment of more teachers at the evaluation centres would leave the headmasters without enough teachers to even monitor the classes, he added.

Teachers further suggested that if officials are concerned about improper evaluation in schools, they could consider exchange of answer sheets between schools in a randomised manner for evaluation instead of opting for a centralised evaluation, which, according to them, will create more problems.