Is collection of fees for re-evaluation justified?
VIJAYA RAJA MUKESH KRISHNA
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The student not be penalised for the board’s mistake
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Once board examination results are announced, many students would want to have their papers re-evaluated or re-totalled with the hope that there would at least be a marginal increase in their marks.
For the re-evaluation or re-totalling process, the board collects a fee which it says is the cost of performing these tasks and the board is indeed right since these involve cost.
If the paper that a student sends for re-evaluation or re-totalling does not have any changes, then the board is justified in its collection of a fee since the application for re-evaluation or re-totalling can be dismissed as a whim of the student.
Logical responsibility
But if there is indeed a change, then shouldn’t it be the logical responsibility of the board to refund the collected fee? Isn’t this like being penalised either way?
If a student’s paper after submission for re-evaluation or re-totalling returns with an increase in the mark and if indeed the student had not sent it in the first place, he would have lost these few marks and this could have adversely affected his career since a difference of a few marks makes a major difference in our pattern of education.
But then if the student sends this paper for re-totalling or re-evaluation, he pays a fee. This is like being penalised both ways for a mistake that is wholly the board’s. In re-evaluation at least, if there is an increase in the original mark, it could be reasonably justified since there could have been a judgmental mistake during the original evaluation.
No possibility
But in the case of re-totalling there could be no possibility of a mistake and if there is, it is a gross blunder on the part of the board and if at all there is anyone who should be penalised for it, it should be the board and not the student who is at the receiving end of the error.
So in case of re-evaluation or re-totalling if the paper returns with no changes, the board can collect a fee from the student. But if otherwise, since it is the board’s responsibility to ensure an error free evaluation, it should refund the collected fee, especially in the case of re-totalling.
Hopefully, the board would consider this suggestion keeping in mind that this is the sentiment echoed by hundreds of students who go through the hassle of re-evaluation and re-totalling every year.
(The writer is a third year student at SASTRA University, Thanjavur)
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