From now on, students appearing for class X and XII board examinations in Tamil Nadu need not fret over whether they had entered accurately vital details such as the name, registration number and subject code in the answer sheet.
The new model of answer sheets now will come with all these details printed. The candidate will only have to enter the number of pages and the booklet series (question paper code) and affix his/her signature, sources in the Department of School Education told The Hindu on Wednesday.
The new model will also have bar-coding, which make it easier for the officials to keep track of the paper. This model will be first put into use during the class X and XII supplementary examinations to be held in September-October.
The Department of Government Examinations convened a regional meeting involving School Education Department officials from eight Western districts at Salem on Tuesday. Joint Director of Government Examinations Department P. Ramarajan explained the new format to the Chief Educational Officers, Inspectors of Matriculation Schools, District Educational Officers and other officials involved in the examination process.
An official who took part in the meeting said the earlier model of answer sheets, students had to enter all their details into a ‘fly-sheet.’ A dummy number will be stamped on to the fly sheet and the answer sheet after which they will be separated and sent for valuation, after which they will be put together again. This system has been replaced with bar coding under the new system.
An official said this step will save a lot of time as the stamping of dummy numbers took at least a couple of days. Further, with all the details of students printed, the scope for wrong entries had been eliminated.
A School Education Department official said this new format was mooted by the former Director of School Education and present Director of Government Examinations K. Devarajan to reduce the quantum of work involved in public examination paper valuation.
This new format was intended to reduce valuation time and make ‘paper-chasing’ (a practice in which some candidates try to trace their paper during evaluation) impossible. Even the candidate’s medium of instruction and his/her photo will be printed.
