Desk Report: The public exam scripts of different schools and colleges nationwide are alleged to be assessed improperly in many cases leading to unacceptable and disappointing results, reports Daily Sun.
The poor evaluation has been attributed to the dishonesty of a section of examiners and the hurriedness of the Education and the Primary and Mass Education Ministries.
An examiner gets only 4 to 15 days to go through 200 to 500 exam scripts of PEC, JSC, SSC and HSC which is quite insufficient. On the other hand, many examiners mark exam papers by just counting pages of the script without going through students’ work.
Besides, a number of dishonest examiners engage their wives, children and even their students to evaluate the exam papers.
During interviews with this correspondent, teachers of some educational institutions came up with the information.
The institutions include Haji Abdul Awal Degree College, Haji Selim University College (formerly known as Metropolis Degree College), Nurjahan Begum High School, Dakshin Dubaldia Abdur Razzak High School and Palerchar Government Primary School in and outside Dhaka.
According to the teachers of the institutions who also grade exam papers, the education boards take little care of the malpractice that has long been going on. They demanded much more time with a satisfactory honorarium for evaluation of the exam papers.
An assistant professor of Haji Selim University College, who wishes to remain anonymous, said that earlier two months’ time was allowed to mark 200 exam scripts of HSC.
“But only 15 days was given to evaluate 300 to 500 scripts in the last HSC examination. It was not sufficient time to evaluate a huge number of scripts properly.
“An examiner can mark a maximum of four scripts in an hour properly. And he or she does not get more than four hours of free time a day after doing their regular job as a teacher.
“So, a teacher can examine 240 answer scripts within the given time frame.” He alleged that a section of teachers of English, Bangla, accounting and science get exam papers evaluated by other people. The assistant professor said an examiner, who is known to him, went through 500 scripts of HSC within 10 days by spending only five minutes on each script.
“Now, many examiners do not evaluate scripts appropriately. Marks are given on a basis of idea or by counting pages in many cases,” he said.
Three assistant professors of Haji Abdul Awal Degree College agree with his statements.
An assistant teacher of Palerchar Government Primary School said she was given 200 exam scripts of PEC and asked to submit them within four days.
“It is a very limited time. The timeframe should increase reasonably and the honorarium as well, which is now Tk 6 for one script,” she said.
Educationist Prof Dr Samad is of the opinion that an examiner of school or college can evaluate a maximum of 15 scripts a day.
“But there is information that a teacher grade 300 scripts a day,” he said.
Director General of Directorate of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Prof Md Mahbubur Rahman and Director General of Directorate of Primary Education Dr Abu Hena Mostofa Kamal could not be reached for comments despite several attempts.