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The new on-screen marking (OSM) system, which was implemented by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) this year without proper preparation, has now become a bone of contention for the board. After serious irregularities and discrepancies in the digital evaluation of copies came to light, more than 4 lakh students across the country have demanded their scanned answer sheets.
Since class 12 marks are very important for getting admission and scholarship in prestigious colleges in the country and abroad, the future of lakhs of promising students is at stake. According to an investigative report by ‘Hindustan Times’, CBSE had implemented this controversial OSM system across the country by completely ignoring the important suggestions and warnings of the members of its own top Governing Body.
Consultants had advised to run a pilot project, the board ignored it
The minutes of an important meeting of the CBSE Governing Body held in June 2025 have revealed that the members had clearly suggested to the Board that on-screen marking (OSM) should be first run as a ‘pilot project’ on a few selected subjects in various regional offices of the Board, instead of imposing it in all subjects at once. The board has 22 regional offices, but no pilot project was conducted before the complex system was rolled out on a large scale this year.
Contrary to this valuable advice, the Board conducted a nominal dry run in January with only 100 teachers from just 5 schools in Delhi. The teachers involved in this dry run had identified the shortcomings of the software and had given a written warning to the board that before implementing it across the country, teachers should be given proper and intensive training for at least one or two years.
Minimal training and heavy pressure to check copies quickly
Ignoring the warnings of teachers, CBSE suddenly announced the implementation of OSM on February 9. This was followed by a nationwide webinar on 13 February and a training portal opened on 15 February, which teachers involved in the evaluation termed as a mere “formality”. The actual evaluation work started from March 7.
Teachers present at the evaluation centers said that they were not at all familiar with this new software and were learning to operate the system while checking the actual (live) answer sheets of the children. Moreover, in order to declare the results early and make the ‘digital rollout’ appear successful, there was immense pressure from the Board on the teachers to check the copies quickly. According to the principal of a private school, a strict target was set for the teachers to check copies daily, due to which the emphasis was only on speed instead of reading carefully.
Screen based checking of copies dealt a blow to ‘step marking’
Teachers (evaluators) who check the copies say that the fatigue caused by continuously looking at the copies on the screen for several hours had the worst impact on the step-marking of subjects like Mathematics and Physics.
According to teachers, while checking the physical copy, it is very easy to turn the pages, re-look at the answers and catch the steps written in the corners or missed. On the contrary, strange handwriting or answers written in the corners due to blurry and incomplete scans on the computer screen were easily ignored, leading to students’ marks being deducted.
Students’ pain reflected in figures: Poor scanning exposed
CBSE itself has admitted that initially there were major technical problems in log-in, system overload and scanning. As per board data:
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Out of the total 9,866,622 answer sheets examined this year 68,018 copies had to be re-scanned due to poor and blurry image quality.
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13,583 copies were eventually made manually (by hand). Had to be checked because even after repeated scanning, clear copies were not visible on the computer screen.
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Till May 26, CBSE has received scan copies of 1,131,961 copies. 404,319 applications Which is a historic increase of 208% in applications and 301% in demand for answer sheets as compared to last year.
Although the board is citing the reason behind this huge increase in the fee cut on May 17 (from ₹ 700 to ₹ 100 per subject), principals and parents say that this increase reflects the serious concern created among the students. Overall pass percentage of 12th this year Huge decline of 3.19 percentage points Has come, which is the lowest since 2019.
Students and parents were surprised after seeing the answer sheet, raised these 8 serious questions
After getting the scanned copies in their hands, the students and parents are shocked. They are raising the following serious objections on the functioning of the portal and CBSE:
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Evaluation of blurry copies: How did CBSE check so many blurred scanned copies and mark on the basis of this?
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Unchecked Answer: Due to blurring, many important answers from teachers were left unchecked.
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Error in MCQ also: Even in Multiple Choice Questions, marks were deducted despite having correct answers.
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Exchange of Copies: Copies of many students have been exchanged and the answer sheet of another student has been uploaded on their roll number.
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Missing pages and extra sheets: In many answer sheets, only the main pages and the supplementary (extra) sheets attached separately by the students are missing.
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Deduction on correct answers: Unnecessary marks have been deducted even for absolutely correct and accurate answers.
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Late Delivery: Even after weeks of applying and making payment, many students have still not received their answer sheets for download.
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Incomplete Copies: Students are not able to see as many copies of answer sheets for the subjects for which fees were paid on the portal.
This system has failed in the year 2014 also, but will continue next year also.
This is not the first time CBSE has attempted digital assessment. Earlier in the year 2014 also, the board had run a pilot project of OSM for some subjects of class 10 and 12, but even then it was immediately withdrawn due to huge problems of scanning and internet connectivity.
Despite such a huge nationwide controversy and protest, top CBSE officials have made it clear that the OSM system will continue in next year’s board exams also. Former CBSE Chairman Ashok Ganguly has called it a good initiative towards modernity, but he has stressed that to save the credibility of this system, there is a dire need for high-quality scanning, long training of teachers and better preparations, otherwise the students will completely lose faith in the board.
