No option for reassessment, Odisha Edu Board asks dissatisfied students to sit for offline exams in July amid imminent third wave

Faced with protests over alleged discrepancies in scores awarded to students in the High School Certificate (HSC) exams, the Board of Secondary Education (BSE), Odisha, stood firm on its evaluation process and said the results will not be reassessed. The board has, however, given students dissatisfied with their marks the option to sit for the physical examination that is set to be held in July. With the COVID-19 pandemic still on, most states have cancelled exams, and the Supreme Court has made it quite clear that they would hold the states responsible for even one loss of life. 

BSE president Ramashis Hazra said that the board is planning to conduct HSC examinations in offline mode next month for which the form fill-up process will start from July 5. Steps will be taken for early publication of results so that students do not face difficulties in taking admissions to Plus II courses. "There is no question of reassessment. Students, who are not satisfied with the results, can appear for the HSC examinations in offline mode," he asserted. Addressing the media on Tuesday, Hazra said, after consultations with renowned educationists and academicians and observing the modalities adopted by other states, the BSE prepared detailed guidelines for an alternative method of assessment, which was shared with all district education officers (DEOs) and headmasters of schools.

The marking criteria were also uploaded on the official website of BSE for everyone's knowledge. Marks were awarded by considering the previous performances of students and results published as per the guidelines. BSE vice-president Nihar Ranjan Mohanty said some schools had uploaded inflated marks of their students. "After observing it, the board adopted a moderation policy in the alternative assessment method. The inflated marks were assessed and awarded based on the school's performance in the last four years," he said, adding a special core committee was constituted to review the results.

Clarifying on changes in results of 22 schools in Kissan Nagar tehsil of Cuttack district, Mohanty said the administrative control of the schools was transferred from Jagatsinghpur DEO to Cuttack DEO last year. The assessment of the schools were not conducted properly over new codes issued to them due to which the board had to change the results. He said the number of students scoring A-1 grade this time is two times more than the previous year. Similarly, the number of students scoring A2 grade this year is three times more than last year.