The errors made by teachers while marking School Leaving Certificate answer sheets are to blame chiefly for students’ unexpected results, according to a report.

The findings released by the Office of the Controller of Examinations (OCE) on Sunday blame examiners for 63 percent mistakes in SLC results. The report is based on the findings of re-totaling results of SLC last year, evaluated by a team of experts led by the exam controller. It shows that marks granted for individual answers were stated incorrectly on the cover page for the final score.

Errors cropped up also in totaling the obtained score while some answers were left unattended to. Other acts of negligence include lack of clarity in marking and giving marks haphazardly.

“The mistakes would have decreased significantly had copy examiners rechecked before assigning the final score,” said Examination Controller Bishnu Bahadur Dware. He added that those found negligent were blacklisted and they will not get to mark the tests in future.

In an attempt to minimise errors, the OCE has decided to caution copy examiners before handing out answer sheets. A teacher can mark 500 answer sheets at most.

The carelessness in decoding answer sheets accounted for 28 percent mistakes in results while improper scrutiny resulted in seven percent mistakes. A total of 11,422 students had applied for re-totaling and mistakes were found in 1,209 cases—640 of them acquired the pass mark and 749 witnessed an increase in percentage.

source: the kathmandu post,25 march 2014