The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : New SSLC evaluators in lieu of absentees

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Sunday, Apr 13, 2008
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New SSLC evaluators in lieu of absentees

Special Correspondent

Substitute teachers are being appointed to make up for those absent

Rs. 70-a-day fee for evaluation is too low: teachers
There will be no delay in publishing results: SSLC Board

— Photo: K. Gopinathan

No takers: Only a few SSLC evaluators are seen at one of the evaluation centres in Bangalore on Saturday.

Bangalore: The Karnataka Secondary School Examination Board is appointing substitute teachers to make up for the evaluators who have not turned up for the ongoing evaluation of SSLC examination answer scripts.

Even as the number of evaluators in centres across Bangalore remained low on the second day of evaluation on Saturday, norms have been relaxed to allow teachers with three or more years of service (as against five stipulated earlier) to join evaluation with valid proof of their experience to be verified by the nodal officers.

At Mitralaya School in Bangalore on Saturday morning, about 30 per cent of evaluators were absent, even as new evaluators were seen trickling in.

According to sources, average absenteeism stood at about 20 per cent on Saturday as against 30 per cent on the first day.

SSLC Board’s chairperson D.S. Rajanna said that the situation was “fast improving” and he did not foresee a delay in results. “Results will be out in the first week of May,” he said. “More and more teachers are joining evaluation and we expect further improvement.” Evaluation will be over in eight to 10 days, he added. Teachers’ dissatisfaction over non-implementation of the Department of Education’s recommendation on pay hike is said to be one of the reasons for resentment among teachers, leading to absenteeism. The teachers, who had earlier threatened to boycott evaluation, had later decided to participate wearing black badges as a mark of protest.

President of Karnataka Secondary School Teachers’ Association C. Shankarappa, however, said that the association had not given any boycott call and absenteeism was because of “other factors” such as early start of evaluation compared to last year.

Some evaluators who spoke to The Hindu said that the fee paid for evaluation (Rs. 70 a day for those within Bangalore) was too low.

MLC B. Puttanna, who represents a teachers’ constituency, said that evaluation had started “too early” this year and many teachers were still busy with the evaluation work for Class 8 and Class 9 in their respective schools.

About 30 per cent of evaluators did not turn up for evaluation in Gulbarga and Yadgir centres also.

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