A Novel Implementation of Marksheet Parser Using PaddleOCR

TL;DR

This paper presents a new marksheet parser system leveraging PaddleOCR, improving accuracy over previous solutions, with testing across multiple Indian states and plans for broader evaluation.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel marksheet parser implementation using PaddleOCR, enhancing accuracy through specific pre- and post-processing steps compared to prior PyTesseract-based methods.

Findings

Improved OCR accuracy with PaddleOCR over previous methods

Successful testing on seven Indian states' marksheets

Ongoing evaluation for additional states and boards

Abstract

When an applicant files an online application, there is usually a requirement to fill the marks in the online form and also upload the marksheet in the portal for the verification. A system was built for reading the uploaded marksheet using OCR and automatically filling the rows/ columns in the online form. Though there are partial solutions to this problem - implemented using PyTesseract - the accuracy is low. Hence, the PaddleOCR was used to build the marksheet parser. Several pre-processing and post-processing steps were also performed. The system was tested and evaluated for seven states. Further work is being done and the system is being evaluated for more states and boards of India.