Higher Secondary Education Board (HSEB) is all set to introduce Optical Mark Reader (OMR) technology and bar codes to check answer sheets of Grade XI and XII. The new technology‚ being introduced for the first time in Nepal‚ will ensure fast result with less error and curb fake examinees‚ said HSEB today.
The education board has already developed OMR and bar code readable answer sheets‚ registration forms and mark slips.
OMR is a device that ‘reads’ pencil marks on NCS compatible scan forms such as surveys or test answer forms. It enables the processing of hundreds or thousands of documents every hour.
When OMR reads the form‚ it scans the photos‚ signatures‚ their names and addresses‚ so that no fake examinees can attend the exam. When it reads the mark slips‚ the marks scored by the students are correctly entered into the computers and there are less chances of entering wrong numbers during data entry.
Bar code consists of a group of bars and spaces and sometimes numerals designed to be scanned and read into computer memory that contains information about the object it labels. The bar codes in the answer sheets hide the identification of students‚ reducing the examiners’ chances to favour their near and dear ones. Durga Prasad Aryal‚ controller‚ Office of the Controller of Examinations‚ HSEB‚ said‚ “We have received tonnes of complaints regarding the errors in the result in the past‚ therefore‚ we are introducing the new system so that we can provide the results as soon as possible and with less errors.”
He said‚ “Earlier‚ the examiners used to correct the answer sheets and add the numbers which would be entered into the computer‚ but now the numbers given by the examiners would be directly entered into the OMR readable marks slip.”
OMR will also reduce the need for more human resources for data processing and read the data faster with no errors and nab the fake examinees easily.
According to Aryal‚ each OMR will read around 55‚000 mark slips in one hour. One slip contains the scores of 15 examinees.
Around 1 million students will appear in the upcoming Grade XII and XI exams to be held from April 30 to May 14 and May 14 to May 24‚ respectively.
The technology will be only used in the Kathmandu Valley in the pilot phase and will later be expanded across the country.
Source;The Himalayantimes
