Mumbai: Result declaration of the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) Class 10 and Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) Class 12 board examinations might get delayed, as the assessment of answer papers has been halted due to the lockdown.
Teachers who manually complete paper correction are unable to commute to schools and colleges to assess answer scripts.
Even though the examination of HSC board ended on March 18, 2020, teachers have not been able to complete the assessment of all subjects due to the lockdown announcement.
Heena Lal, an examiner, said, "We would assess answer papers every day as soon as the exam was over. We managed to complete the assessment of a majority of answer papers, but there are few papers which are still remaining.
Also, there are some answer papers which need to be moderated. This process is pending as junior colleges are shut due to the coronavirus pandemic."
On the other hand, answer papers of SSC exams are pending to be assessed, as the state education ministry, on March 21, decided to postpone the last exam.
Later, on April 12, Varsha Gaikwad, Maharashtra education minister of school and higher secondary education, announced the cancellation of all pending SSC exams. Jeetu Mahendra, a teacher said, "Since all exams have been cancelled, we are yet to complete paper assessment."
Authorities of the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE) revealed paper assessment has been halted at the moment. Sandeep Sangve, Secretary of MSBSHSE, Mumbai division said, "Teachers are locked in their homes as schools and colleges are shut. They cannot manually check answer papers, so the assessment process is halted at the moment.
We will complete paper assessment on priority once the situation due to the CoVID-19 settles down so that there is no delay in result declaration." There are no systems to conduct paper assessment of SSC and HSC board exam online as teachers have been correcting papers manually.
Sangve added, "Teachers have been conducting paper assessment manually." While Umesh Ghodke, a teacher said, "We do not have any systems for online assessment. We will have to wait for the lockdown to be lifted so that we can assess answer papers and complete paper correction on time."
