BENGALURU
: During the SSLC exams in July 2020, 4,317 teachers committed mistakes in evaluation which resulted in students seeking revaluation. In all cases, a minimum of six marks varied after revaluation and was up to 20 marks in some cases.
The matter came up for discussion in the legislative council on Monday, where primary and secondary education minister BC Nagesh said teachers guilty of irregular evaluation had to cough up Rs 51.5 lakh as fine. But the government has collected only Rs 10 lakh so far. Raising the query, CN Ravikumar said one month’s salary must be deducted from such teachers for inconveniencing students during the pandemic. “They must be blacklisted and not considered for SSLC evaluation henceforth,” he said.
Nagesh said errors occurred due to callousness of some teachers and added that the department will think about what could be done. SSLC exams of 2019-20 were delayed due to the pandemic. In all, 19,826 applications were received for revaluation and in 15,591 applications, the difference in marks after revaluation was less than six. However, in 4,235 cases, the difference was more than six, and all teachers responsible for it had to pay a penalty.
When the difference of marks was more than six, the government had repaid revaluation amount of Rs 805 per paper to applicants.
As schools were closed during the pandemic in 2020, the penalty collection was low, but school authorities have been directed to collect fine from teachers and give it to the department, Nagesh said. “The deputy directors in districts have been instructed to receive the penalty from teachers,” he added.