Rank injustice

BHUBANESWAR: The Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE) was left red faced after a Plus II examinee was elevated to all-Odisha third rank from 15th after he got his marks “re-added” following the Orissa high court’s intervention.
CHSE has recommended disciplinary action against two erring examiners and also mulling to impose a life ban on them.On the other hand, the student’s parents are seeking re-evaluation of his answer-sheets, stating that it would make him the Odisha topper.
Cuttack-lad Anupam Jena, who had topped in the state in the matriculation examination in 2010, had come 15th in the all-Odisha merit list in the Plus II examination, results of which were published on May 30.
Unhappy over the results, Anupam approached the high court, exuding confidence that his papers were not evaluated properly. The high court allowed re-addition of marks following which the CHSE issued him a fresh mark-sheet by increasing mathematics marks by 13 from 81 to 94 and Sanskrit by nine from 78 to 87. This made his total marks 554, putting him at third place in the all-Odisha rank.
Anupam’s father, Anjan Jena, on Sunday said even during the re-addition, the council has done a mistake. He should have got 15 more marks in mathematics (not 13) and 10 more in Sanskrit (not nine). “If the court allows re-evaluation of mathematics and Sanskrit, his total marks will go up to 570, placing him at Number One position in the merit list,” he said. The next hearing on Jena’s writ petition (civil) in the HC is fixed on August 31, Anupam’s counsel Chitramohan Dhal said.
CHSE authorities conceded the errors. “After the mistakes were pointed out, a fresh mark-sheet was issued to the student,” said CHSE controller of examinations (CoE) Jasobanta Behera.
Behera said action will be taken against the examiners who had committed the mistakes while awarding the marks. “We are planning to ban the examiners for life from CHSE examination works and recommend the government for taking suitable disciplinary action as per norms,” Behera said.
The goof-up comes on a year when CHSE had separately sorted out answer-sheets of those securing above 90 per cent marks for further scrutiny. CHSE authorities had then articulated that such papers will undergo a second analysis to reduce margin of errors. The plan was, however, not implemented because of paucity of time.
The high court allowed re-addition of marks following which the CHSE issued the examinee a fresh mark-sheet by increasing his marks in mathematics by 13 from 81 to 94 and Sanskrit by nine from 78 to 87. This made his total marks 554.