Inaugurated by the Namibian Minister of Education, Dr David Namwandi, the online e-marking system allows several moderators to access the same exam papers online, in order to significantly reduce the moderation time of national examinations.
The Ministry of Education, in collaboration with CSX, conducted a pilot project in 2013 which was highly successful, and are now launching the official WebScore Project for Grade 10 examinations across the following five subject fields: geography, physical science, history, design and technology, and entrepreneurship. Plans are also in place to include Grades 5, 7 and 12 in the near future.
Mario Martins, Director of CSX Customer Services, says the WebScore Project was developed to help the education system overcome the challenges of loss or damage to examination papers which typically occurs during the transport process from the place of examination to the marking location. "This was causing heavy delays in the processing of examination results for students. If the system is used properly it can potentially reduce the overall marking time by up to 60%."
Martins explains that the exam papers are captured digitally by state of the art high resolution scanners which can process up to 20,000 pages per hour and then downloaded to a database. "Each paper is then marked by two enumerators and a supervisor at different locations to ensure a valid, non-biased and moderated mark. The user-friendly system uses various rubrics to mark each individual paper to ensure ease of use for teachers and enumerators alike."
The system allows for open ended questions in addition to multiple choice responses that can be subjectively and non-subjectively assessed to obtain a balanced mark, he says. "The system then calculates the correct aggregate, minimising the chance of human error in the evaluation process and ensuring a fair result for students."
This technology has been successfully implemented in various other countries worldwide, including Barbados, Argentina, Honduras, Egypt, Oman, India and Malaysia.
Martins concludes, "The Namibian installation is one of the first of many installations in Africa to be distributed by CSX Customer Services. We are proud to be a part of the implementation of this innovative system which will change the face of education in Africa."
