The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Monday started re-evaluating the entire Class 12 answer scripts through its own portal. Teachers and administrators participating in the exercise described the new system as “smoother and safer” than Coempt Edu Teck’s OnMark platform, which the board dropped last month. However, some students complained that they were still unable to obtain scanned copies of their answer scripts, leaving them unable to request re-evaluation.
According to CBSE data, from June 2 to 7, more than 160,000 students filed verification requests and objections to questions relating to more than 380,000 answer books – which is about 35% of the 1.1 million scanned copies requested by students. Between May 19 and 25, more than 400,000 out of nearly 1.8 million Grade 12 students applied for more than 1.1 million scanned copies of answer scripts.
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Teachers involved in the reassessment process told HT that assessors are only offered the specific questions that have been marked by students for reassessment. Examiners review the scanned answer scripts and award marks strictly as per the marking scheme of CBSE. The marks awarded by the original evaluator are not shown to them, and they evaluate each challenged question independently after reading the reasons given by the student.
A mathematics teacher from Ghaziabad, who participated in the exercise, said the review process is conducted by multiple assessors to ensure fairness.
“Two teachers are examining the objections raised by the students regarding the marking of each question. “We have been able to log in to the new OSM portal for CBSE easily and are seamlessly implementing the process of re-verification and awarding marks where due to the students,” the teacher said.
HT reported on June 6 that the CBSE had stopped using Coempt’s OnMark platform for the reassessment process amid concerns over the security of student and exam data, with the information being migrated to infrastructure under the board’s direct control.
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The re-evaluation process, under which subject experts scrutinize answers challenged by students, is now being implemented through CBSE’s On-Screen Marking (OSM) portal developed with the help of experts from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras and IIT Kanpur.
The new portal was developed on the same code base that Coempt uses on servers that the council now directly controls, an official previously told HT. The board previously used Coempt’s OnMark software to digitally assess nearly 10 million Class 12 answer scripts before announcing the results on 13 May.
The head of the IT department at the Delhi Revaluation Center said that the new system addressed many of the operational difficulties that were encountered earlier.
“CBSE’s OSM system is better, stronger, smoother and more secure than Coempt’s OnMark platform. We are not facing the issues we faced earlier. Questions were scanned in more than 750 answers across different topics at our center in a single day,” the center’s IT head said.
CBSE’s OSM portal was developed with the help of a four-member expert team from IIT Madras and IIT Kanpur, comprising specialists in computer systems, cyber security and examinations. The team was deputed after Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan directed the institutes on May 24 to assist CBSE.
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A senior IIT Kanpur official said the new platform, though built on Coempt’s core code base, has been extensively modified and subjected to stringent security testing.
“We have hardened the code and made the system more resilient to vulnerabilities. During our evaluation of Coempt’s OnMark platform, we identified several security vulnerabilities. In contrast, the dedicated ‘red team’ tasked with trying to hack CBSE’s reassessment portal was unable to identify any major vulnerabilities.”
The new OSM system for CBSE was tested using the ‘Red-Blue Team’ model. While the blue team — which included CBSE developers and experts from IIT Madras and Digital India Corporation — worked on strengthening the software, a red team of experts from IIT Kanpur tried to identify vulnerabilities and hack into the system.
It is technically possible for CBSE to eventually develop and operate a fully autonomous OSM platform, “but doing so would require a dedicated internal team responsible for ongoing maintenance, updates and security management,” the official said.
“Given the volume and sensitivity of the data, the in-house OSM platform will ensure greater security and transparency. It will provide long-term sustainability and stronger alignment with the educational and technological vision of CBSE, while reducing dependency on any external service providers,” said Jyoti Arora, principal, Mount Abu Public School, Delhi.
HT reported on June 6 that cybersecurity certifications accepted by the Central Board of Secondary Education as proof that the controversial on-screen marking (OSM) platform was safe to process nearly 10 million student answer texts covered a different customer’s deployment of the same software that had been tested in a pre-production environment and, in one case, was nearly two years old when introduced, a review of documents by HT found.
Despite the smoother performance reported by evaluators, some students say problems persist.
Anup Kumar Singh, a Class XII student from Delhi, said he never received scanned copies of his answer scripts despite paying the required amount.
“I could not get my scanned copies of any subject even after making payment. I repeatedly posted on social media and emailed CBSE about the issue but did not receive any response. How can I apply for re-evaluation without receiving my copy?” He said.
Several students have raised similar complaints online, alleging that delays in receiving scanned answer books prevented them from submitting question challenges within the stipulated deadline.
CBSE officials did not respond to HT’s queries for comment.
