Defending the newly introduced On-Screen Marking System (OSM) amid criticism over the sharp decline in Class 12 results, officials at the Central Board of Secondary Education and the union education ministry on Sunday said the technology-driven assessment process has ensured transparent and objective assessment, even as experts and teachers point to broader structural shifts in assessment patterns, normalization of results post-pandemic, and changing priorities of students amid the rise of entrance exams like the Combined University Entrance Test as factors behind the board’s lowest pass percentage in seven years. years.
The overall passing percentage for Chapter 12 fell by 3.19 percentage points to 85.20%, down from 88.39% last year, the lowest level since 2019, when the passing percentage was 83.40%. This decline came in the first year of CBSE’s complete OSM system for evaluating Class 12 answer papers.
Under OSM, answer scripts were scanned and uploaded to a secure digital portal where teachers assessed them on computer screens, digitally entering marks and annotated answers online, while totals were automatically calculated to eliminate human errors. CBSE evaluated 9,866,622 answer books digitally, while 13,583 copies were manually scanned as repeated scanning failed to produce clear images.
Addressing a press conference on Sunday, Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSEL) Secretary Sanjay Kumar said discrepancies in Class 12 results had been there since 2019 and that Covid-era relaxations had temporarily inflated pass percentages.
“The system is now stabilizing and the marking process has become much more objective,” Kumar said, adding that the evaluation process itself has not changed except that answer scripts are now evaluated on digital screens instead of being evaluated physically.
Nearly 300,000 teachers have logged in to the CBSE training portal, while 77,000 teachers have participated in the assessment, CBSE Chairman Rahul Singh said. “The teachers only evaluated each transcript in OSM and AI was not used in evaluating the answer scripts,” Singh said.
According to Singh, CBSE conducted a pilot from January 20 to 21 across five schools with 100 teachers before rolling out demonstrations, webinars and practice sessions on previous years’ answer scripts ahead of the assessment exercise on March 7.
Even as some school administrators and students questioned whether evaluators had received adequate training on the digital system, experts and officials said the decline could not be attributed to OSM alone.
A school principal in Delhi, who requested anonymity, said the rollout seemed rushed and that many teachers, especially in government schools, were not familiar with the technology. “Ideally, OSM should have been implemented next year after broader preparation,” the director said.
Amit Kaushik, former director of primary education in the Ministry of Human Resource Development, described the decline in results as part of a “transition phase” rather than any decline in the importance of board exams, rejecting suggestions that CUET made students take boards less seriously.
This trend reflects reforms underway since 2018, when CBSE started gradually introducing higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) questions and reducing reliance on rote memorization, he said. This was followed by the Covid years (2020-22), when lax assessment practices led to unusually high pass rates, and now the move to OSM and competency-based assessment under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
“Assessment may change faster than classroom teaching,” Kaushik said, adding that board exams now test conceptual understanding and written explanation as opposed to CUET’s objective and MCQ-based format.
Today, students prepare within a more layered academic environment, balancing board exams along with competitive preparation for admissions, said Dr. Manisha Kaushik, Director General, GAV International School, Gurugram.
“Board assessments increasingly test analytical ability, conceptual understanding and written interpretation, while many admissions tests prioritize speed and accuracy of objective responses,” she said.
Teachers participating in the evaluation echoed similar concerns.
A Delhi government school teacher who evaluated answer books for Class 12 said the low pass percentage reflects how students try to submit descriptive analytical papers rather than the flaws in OSM. “Many students are more prepared to prepare in an objective manner because of CUET and other entrance exams. But board papers require written responses and sophisticated thinking,” the teacher said.
Another teacher at a government school in Delhi said students are increasingly viewing entrance exams as more important for university admission. “As admissions become more and more closely related to CUET, some students are shifting their serious preparation towards entrance exams. This changes their interaction with the board writing practice,” the teacher said.
Former CBSE Chairman Ashok Ganguly described the decline as a “healthy correction after years of inflation”. He said more rigorous assessment, OSM and a greater share of competency-based and HOTS questions had produced a more realistic picture of students’ performance.
“CUET is objective-based and the tests are called under the pressure of speed. Board exams require students to analyse, synthesize concepts and explain them in writing. They require a completely different preparation,” Ganguly said.
This shift is in line with NEP 2020, which calls for a move away from “summative assessment that encourages the current training culture” towards “systematic and formative assessment” that is “more competency-based” and tests “analysis, critical thinking and conceptual clarity”.
CBSE started introducing competency-based questions in 2021 and has steadily increased its share to 50% this year, according to people familiar with the development. Competency-based questions test the application of concepts in unfamiliar situations, while HOTS questions require students to analyse, infer, and evaluate rather than reproduce memorized answers.
Some residents also said that OSM reduced the regional leniency that existed under manual screening. “Under OSM, copies are distributed digitally across regions, reducing local variation in labeling patterns,” said a person familiar with the process.
The decline in success rates was reflected across regions. Patna recorded the largest decline of 8.41 percentage points, falling from 82.86% in 2025 to 74.45% this year, while Prayagraj’s rate fell by 7.10 percentage points to 72.43%. Vijayawada’s approval rating dropped from 99.60% to 92.77%, Panchkula’s approval rating dropped from 91.17% to 85.73%, and even top performer Thiruvananthapuram dropped from 99.32% to 95.62%.
However, some students remained unconvinced that OSM was running smoothly.
Rashi Mishra, who took the 2026 exams, said she was expecting “at least 80%” but got 74%.
“CUET is mostly MCQ-based and tests rapid recall, while CBSE board exams require written answers that test understanding and interpretation,” she said. “Even after studying hard for Class 12, I found CUET difficult because the question pattern is completely different.”
Asked whether the government was considering giving weightage to board marks in university admissions along with admission grades, Sanjay Kumar said: “It is a political issue and we are not discussing it today.”
