The CBSE fiasco

 Of course, evaluations are never perfect. There will be always a disgruntled student. There will be totalling errors. There will be instances when the evaluators forget to mark an answer. This happens.  Every year. With every system. Even if we have only 30 answer scripts to correct.  That is why we ask students to check their answer scripts after evaluation.

But what happened with CBSE this year cannot be described by any word. Fiasco. Disaster. Debacle. Blunder. You can pick your favourite word from Roget's.

The OSM was supposed to be the perfect answer to all the problems with the manual system.  The only issue: the answer books had to be scanned. Since CBSE does not have the wherewithal- be it personnel or the equipment- they decided to outsource the process.  A tender was called. Two bid system- Technical bid and financial bid. Financial bid will be opened only if the company qualifies the technical bid. 
Tender specifications were made. As is the norm, the specifications were superb.  No company bid.  When this happened two times, the specifications were lowered. As far as I can make out from the reports, the resolution was reduced down from 600 dpi to 200 dpi. Two companies qualified and the L1 (Lowest bid) was opened.

Anyone who looks at the specifications can immediately understand why the fiasco happened. At 200 dpi, the resolution, especially for a handwritten notebook, is poor. Hence, the blurred images.

I really do not understand this fascination with technology. There are some things that technology cannot replace. One of them is the evaluation process. A teacher has to read the answer scripts. She/he has to understand what the student has written.  Many times the answer might not be exactly what a teacher hoped for but the teacher would try to assess whether the student understood the concept or not.  That is how marks are given. 

I have done CSIR evaluations and we would sit together to evaluate answer scripts. The question setter would have given a possible answer but many times, we would discuss the answer to understand how much marks to give. 

A teacher sitting at home, staring at the computer screen, will not be able to do a good evaluation. Then she/he will do what a colleague of mine does. Just give random marks.  Now add in the blurred images and we can see how the fiasco unfolded.

I do understand that the sheer number makes it difficult to do the assessment. But it is not impossible. It requires logistics and an understanding of what is at stake. 

CBSE should have apologised but that is another story. As a nation, we have forgotten how to apologise. But CBSE has gone one step ahead. They have given a toolkit to the principals to prepare reels/instagram/whatever and told them to praise OSM.

Talk about adding salt to injury! 

 

Restarting or starting anew

 It is always a pleasant surprise when students tell me that they have read my blogs and have enjoyed it. Today one student asked me why I have stopped blogging.  I had no good answer.  So here I am blogging again.

During the recent state elections, I was watching many of the independent news channels on You Tube. So when couple of days back I got Cockroach Janta party on my You Tube feed, I chuckled a bit at the name but ignored it.  But then I saw the news!

The Honorable Chief Justice had allegedly called the unemployed "Cockroach" and thus, was born a new political superstar according to this BBC article

I was little amused  and really angry. Where are the jobs? I see my PhD students struggling to get a decent postdoctoral position.  I see them anguished and wondering what is in store for them.  They are grabbing whatever comes their way.  I see my M.Sc. students, many of whom really do not want to do a PhD, looking for job opportunities. And this semester, I have been looking at my undergraduate students, and wondering what will they do after graduation.

The young are not lazy or a parasite.  They are looking for jobs where are there very few to almost none. It is not in India but across the world. As we grapple with wars, we need to ask whether we have failed the younger generation.

BTW, contrary to what the Chief Justice thinks political activism and journalism are essential checks in any world.