For the most part, the initiative of digitisation is taken up by private companies in an effort to go green. But for the first time, the Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board (KSEEB) was able to successfully adopt a similar eco-friendly practice by digitising the process of collating data and issuing admission ticket to class 10 students, who will be writing the Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) examination in March 2018.
The department has not used a single sheet of paper for collecting data. In the past, it used a tedious process where students were given OMR sheets to write down all details. Each student would ultimately fill up six such sheets over the year.
This year though, the KSEEB has saved around 51 lakh pages for 8.54 lakh candidates.
The board has also reduced the expenditure by at least ₹45 lakh, says V. Sumangala, Director of the board. She pointed out that manual work too was reduced enormously. She said that if students misplaced their admission ticket, they can approach the school directly instead of approaching the board. Errors such as spelling mistakes in their names or subjects can be rectified at the click of a button by the school principal.
P.C. Jaffer, Commissioner for Public Instruction, said: “Collecting data using OMR sheets and digitising it required communication between the board and the school at least five to six times.”
Details of students are sourced from the Student Achievement Tracking System, which is the database of all school and pre-university students.
School managements, too, have welcomed the initiative. “This move has helped us reduce the number of visits to various offices of the Education Department. Earlier, even if there was one error, the headmaster had to deploy someone to go to the Block Education Officer, then to the Deputy Director of Public Instruction and then the official of the board. This has saved us a lot of time,” said D. Shashi Kumar, general secretary, Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka.
He said that this system has eradicated duplication of students’ data as everything was online. “Earlier, schools would deny hall ticket to students if their academic performances were not up to the mark and also cancel their rolls. With the new system, however, details of all students can be seen,” he said.
Published - February 27, 2018 11:02 pm IST
