The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Union government and the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to apprise it of the “remedial steps” taken to address concerns surrounding the procurement and rollout of the board’s on-screen marking (OSM) system, observing that discrepancies in assessment have caused major “frustration” to young students.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalia Bagchi and V Mohana said it did not question the CBSE’s decision to adopt the digital assessment system but was concerned about the “teething problems” that had arisen during its implementation.
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“Concerns about teething problems”: SC
“We are seeking assistance not in a hostile way…or commenting on your right to have OSM. What concerns us is that there are some initial problems and you are also admitting them,” the bench told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who is representing the Centre.
Mehta informed the court that the petitioner’s individual grievance regarding his mark sheet had already been addressed, but added that the petition also seeks broader reforms in the conduct of board examinations through the OSM system.
“He had some issues with his mark sheet which has been submitted now. The petition also seeks some general reforms. We have appointed a one-member committee of S Radha Chauhan,” Mehta submitted.
However, the bench emphasized the anxiety felt by students due to the reported errors. “Look at how frustrated little kids are,” the CJI noted. Mehta assured the court of the government’s cooperation, saying, “We will assist the court. We do not consider the matter to be hostile.”
The Council then proceeded to direct the government and the CBI to record the corrective actions taken so far.
“We have requested the Solicitor General to assist the court and inform it of the remedial steps taken by the CBI,” the court said in its order.
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Regulatory framework for CBSE exams?
The public interest litigation, filed by Rakesh Pingula, seeks to establish a regulatory framework for the conduct of CBSE board examinations through the OSM assessment system and constitute a high-level committee to oversee its implementation.
It also seeks to relax the minimum qualifying marks for students who have already taken provisional admission or cleared entrance exams, arguing that alleged flaws in the assessment process adversely affected their scores in the board.
This comes against the backdrop of increasing scrutiny of the procurement process for the OSM platform and reports of irregularities in its nationwide rollout of assessment of Year 12 answer scripts.
On June 2, the Center had constituted a single-member inquiry committee headed by retired IAS officer S Radha Chauhan to examine procurement of services for the OSM system. He asked the committee to submit its findings to the Personnel and Training Department within a month.
On the same day, the government transferred CBSE chief Rahul Singh to the agriculture ministry and brought back CBSE secretary Himanshu Gupta to his parent cadre. The Center has also appointed Prashant Lokhande as the new Chairman of CBSE.
These developments follow sustained criticism from parents and teachers, as well as a series of HT reports highlighting concerns over the implementation of the digital assessment mechanism.
HT reported that the CBSE Board had recommended a pilot implementation across regional offices before rolling it out at the national level, a proposal that was not adopted. The internal monitoring report prepared after a pilot in January also cited 36 technical, operational and evaluation-related issues.
HT also reported that the contract for the OSM system was awarded to Coempt Edu Teck just 74 days before the Class XII board examinations, after multiple amendments to the bid during the procurement process.
CBSE later stopped using Coempt’s OnMark platform for the reassessment process amid concerns over the security of student and exam data.
