AHMEDABAD: In board exams, where every mark matters, a teacher made a totalling error of a whopping 30 marks resulting in the student failing the class X board exam. What’s more, when the Gujarat State Education Board (GSEB) verified the result when students applied for re-assessment, it was found that it was a maths teacher who had got the simple addition wrong!
This year, the board has fined 4,488 teachers for making totalling mistakes in allotting marks in class 10 and 12 board exams. The mistakes will cost the erring teachers Rs 64 lakh collectively in form of fines, said GSEB officials.
Board officials said they were surprised to find that many of the 100-odd teachers who had made mistakes worth 10 marks and above were mathematics teachers.
Needless to mention that as admission to diploma courses is granted on the basis of merit finalised on class 10 and 12 board exam result, thousands of students apply for reassessment of papers in hope to better their scores especially in scoring subjects such as mathematics and science.
Bharat Patel, president of the Gujarat Higher Secondary Teachers’ Association, said that the 30 marks gaffe was by a mathematics teacher who forgot to carry forward a digit while adding the marks.
The error was spotted after the student failed in the subject and applied for rechecking.
“In all, 1,654 teachers who worked as paper checkers for class 10 have been fined Rs 20 lakh collectively for errors ,” said Bharat Patel, president of the Gujarat Higher Secondary Teachers’ Association.
In all, 1,654 teachers who worked as paper checkers for Class 10 have been fined Rs 20 lakh collectively for errors. Teachers are fined Rs 100 for every error of one mark. Likewise, 1,404 paper checkers for class 12 general stream are fined for Rs 24.31 lakh and 1,430 paper checkers for class 12 science stream are fined for Rs 19.66 lakh,” said Bharat Patel, president of the Gujarat Higher Secondary Teachers’ Association.
Kiritsinh Mahida, president of the Gujarat Secondary Teachers’ Association, said that some of the common mistakes by the teachers include not carrying forward the number after totalling of marks, forgetting to take consideration the marks for specific answers, and not rounding off the half marks such as 2.5 or 5.5 in total.
“The fines are collected to ensure that the teachers remain vigilant in the marking process,” said Dinesh Patel, vice chairman of GSEB.
This year, about 40,000 to 45,000 teachers were engaged for checking class 10 answer sheets in Gujarat.
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