The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Friday issued a statement defending the newly introduced On-Screen Marking (OSM) system; He reaffirmed the right of students to request a re-evaluation of their answer books. This came as concern and criticism escalated on social media after the sharp decline in the success rate in the twelfth grade this year, to 85.2, by 3.19 percentage points. This is the lowest in seven years.
The decline has disproportionately affected students in science subjects, with social media sites flooded with complaints, especially about grades in physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics.
What CBSE said
Acknowledging the spate of posts on social media, CBSE on X said it had “noted” the concerns raised. She said the OSM system was introduced to enhance “transparency, fairness and consistency” in assessment, highlighting that the system ensures progressive marking, with totals calculated automatically to reduce human error.
Importantly, the Council confirmed that the re-evaluation window will remain open this year.
She added that students who are dissatisfied with their results can apply for copies of the evaluated answer books, and when any discrepancy is found, they can request corrective action through the mechanism established by the Council.
How was OSM deployed?
This year, 1.77 million (17.7 lakh) students appeared for the CBSE Class 12 exams, which is 76,000 more than last year, making the decline in pass percentage even more significant in absolute terms. A total of 98,66,622 answer books were evaluated under the OSM system, marking its first large-scale publication at the Class 12 level.
Under the new system, answer texts were scanned and uploaded to a digital portal where teachers evaluated them on computer screens; digitally entered marks and annotated answers online; While the totals were calculated automatically to reduce human error.
What did the teachers say?
School principals and teachers, who spoke to HT immediately after the results, gave different explanations behind the low pass percentage.
A school principal in Delhi, who requested anonymity, alleged that the rollout was rushed and teachers were not adequately trained.
“Many teachers, especially in government schools, were not familiar enough with technology. Ideally, OSM should have been implemented next year after wider preparation,” the school principal said.
However, a Delhi government school teacher involved in the Class 12 assessment said the process reduced the chances of mistakes.
The decline “reflects a more rigorous competency-based assessment and greater focus on conceptual understanding under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, rather than the marking system under the OSM alone,” said Jyoti Arora, principal of Delhi-based Mount Abu School.
