Singapore
Speaking in Parliament on Tuesday (Mar 20), the Senior Minister of State for Education noted that this would have to be carefully considered, given the large volume of answer scripts and number of subject papers offered each year.
File photo of a student taking the 2017 A-Level Chemistry paper. (Photo: Ruyi Wong)
SINGAPORE: The Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB) is studying the option of scanning and marking answer scripts electronically, Senior Minister of State for Education Janil Puthucheary said on Tuesday (Mar 20).
Speaking in Parliament, he said this would potentially reduce the risks associated with transporting hard copy examination scripts such as theft and misplacement.
But he noted that the implementation of this would have to be “carefully considered”, given the large volume of answer scripts and number of subject papers offered each year. He added that each year, about 900,000 answer scripts are sent to Cambridge Assessment in the United Kingdom for marking.
Dr Puthucheary was responding to a question from Member of Parliament (MP) Murali Pillai, who had asked about the feasibility of scanning exam scripts before sending them to Cambridge Assessment to better deal with incidents of scripts being misplaced or stolen.
Last month, SEAB revealed that 238 students from four junior colleges who sat for their GCE A-Level examinations last year had part of their H2 Chemistry answer scripts stolen in the United Kingdom, before the papers were delivered to the examiners. The scripts were stolen out of a locked courier’s van in the UK while in transit to the examiners for marking.
