Online delivery of SSC, HSC question papers in pipeline

The Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education and the state education department are mulling over the use of technology for conducting the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) exams, which are due to begin in April.

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According to officials, the technology will promote online delivery of question papers and digital evaluation, which is also known as Examination Management System (EMS), to prevent question paper leaks and ensure transparency in the evaluation process.

The education department and the board are considering the initiation of the project from this year after Bangalore-based MindLogic, a private firm, made a presentation to the board on the technology last week. If given the go-ahead, the question papers as per the EMS will be delivered using encryption technology method and there will be a centralised system from where they will be forwarded to the exam centres just before the exam, which the centres will be able to retrieve using a master code key.

"As per the EMS, the answer papers will be scanned and fed into the system, and will also be evaluated online. It will be known as digital evaluation. But we are still estimating the feasibility of the proposed project," said a senior official from the board.

Officials said that with over 25 lakh students appearing for the exams every year, initially the education department will initiate the project on a small-scale, and implement it across limited centres in the state.

Sources also said the project could well be implemented across the higher and technical education departments, which too have been consideringu00a0the move. Minister for Higher and Technical Education Department Rajesh Tope was unavailable for comment.u00a0