Boards go high-tech to make exams more transparent

Optical Mark Recognition machines will be able to scan over 30,000 answer scripts in a day

KARACHI:

It is for the first time in the history of Sindh Examination Boards that a computerised scanning and scoring system is being introduced to the assessment process. The Scantron-style test will be able to grade multiple choice questions using Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) technology, whereby light coming from a scanner recognises where dark marks are made on a special answer script to register the answers.

Sources privy to the development disclose that the networking works required for computerised codification and OMR has already been completed. While a codification and computerised assessment hall has also been set up in the basement of the old parking lot below the examination controller’s office.

The technology, introduced at the behest of the Board of Higher Secondary Education Karachi’s Department of Examinations will now be used to grade the MCQ sheets of over 200,000 students set to take the board examinations this term. It is believed that this automated scoring system will significantly streamline the checking process, while also making the scoring more transparent and free of human errors.

Currently, the Agha Khan University Examination Board (AKU-EB), which is a nationally operating board of intermediate and secondary education, is the only indigenous board already using the OMR technology in Karachi.

Per Inter-Board Examiner Anwar Aleem Khanzada, the MCQ section corresponds to over 40 per cent of the examination paper. “Now onwards, the OMR machines will be used to asses and grade this section of the exam,” confirmed Aleem, adding that the Chairman Board is also fully involved for this purpose.

According to sources in the examinations department of the Board of Intermediate Education Karachi, the board has purchased the OMR system for Rs14.6 million from a Hyderabad-based company. “In this cost, the  company is providing us the required software as well as five OMR scanners. We are now codifying the test copies per the machines, for which two codification systems have also been acquired,” told an official of department.

Per him, one machine is capable of scanning over 30,000 papers in a day, which is significantly faster than manual grading.

Explaining how the new automatic grading system works, the source said that the answers of MCQs of each question would be pre-fed to the system through the accompanying software. The machine will then scan answer scripts and determine correct and incorrect answers based on the pencil markings on the paper. “Similarly, the codification machine will be able to give the codes of 22 exam copies at a time which will generate the award list. This award list will be attached with the relevant copies. The marks obtained in the award list will be blank and the examiner will write the marks obtained in it,” he told The Express Tribune.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 7^th, 2022.