Mita Mukherjee

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has said that there is a shortage of examiners for evaluating the CBSE Class X and XII examinations as several schools have engaged senior qualified teachers of Classes IX to XII to teach the lower classes.

According to the circular issued to heads of all CBSE schools, it has come to the notice of the board that postgraduate trained (PGT) and graduate trained teachers who are supposed to teach the students of senior classes were being asked by schools to teach the junior students.

According to CBSE, the board has taken a serious note of the matter as sufficient numbers of qualified teachers were required by it to complete the evaluation of Class X and XII practical and theory examinations.

It has also come to the notice of the board that schools have not updated the names, qualification and other information about their teachers in the Online Affiliated Schools Information System (OASIS) which has also led to the dearth of examiners.

The board draws teachers from the portal for examining the answer scripts of Classes X and XII board examinations.

“Practical for Class-XII are scheduled from 1 March 2021 to 11 June 2021 and evaluation for both Class – X  & XII will also start from7th May 2021. Quality teachers in sufficient quantity are required to complete both the activities qualitatively and successfully….. in the new session i.e 2021-22, teachers working as PGT (postgraduate teachers), TGT (trained graduate teachers) & teaching to Classes XI/XII and IX/ X respectively have been assigned the lower classes. With this availability of teachers has been reduced for practical/evaluation. This will be viewed seriously.  Names of all teachers working in the schools have not been provided in OASIS….,” the notice read.      

The board has directed the principals of all schools to update the data in the portal within April 10. It has warned schools that a “personal penalty” of Rs 50,000 will be imposed on the principals of respective schools if they fail to update the data within the scheduled date.

The notice says it has been found that several schools have engaged teachers for conducting practical examinations not appointed by the CBSE.

According to the notice, after the April 10 deadline, the CBSE will compare the existing data with the information supplied by the schools in the updated data. Necessary action will be taken if as per the affiliation bye-laws and examination bye-laws of the board if the schools don’t comply with the directive.

In addition to charging the Rs 50,000 penalty from principals, the board can also withhold the result of the Class X and XII board examinations of schools that flout the board directives.

The board can also cancel the practical examination of a school if the test is not conducted with board-appointed examiners and it can re-conduct the test.

Also read: CBSE launches Assessment Framework aligned with NEP 2020 for classes 6 to 10