The political row over CBSE’s new digital assessment system intensified on Wednesday after Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi reacted sharply to the board’s clarification on the ongoing controversy over on-screen marking (OSM).
Hours after the Central Board of Secondary Education rejected the allegations linked to the award of the digital assessment contract, Gandhi accused the board and the federal government of avoiding direct answers to what he called “four simple questions.”
“Denial is not an answer. Why can’t the Education Minister and the Central Board of Secondary Education answer the four simple questions I have asked? The future of 18.5 lakh students has been put at risk,” Gandhi said in a post on X. They deserve the truth.”
CBSE rejects allegations regarding contract award
CBSE issued a statement rejecting claims regarding award of the contract to Hyderabad-based Coempt Edu Teck, the company associated with the digital assessment process conducted by the board for the 2026 exams.
Read also | CBSE rejects Rahul Gandhi’s “false and misleading” claims on Coempt Edu Teck contract
“The CBSE rejects the allegations regarding award of contract to Coempt Edu Teck, Hyderabad. It is false, misleading and not based on facts,” the board said.
The Council confirmed that all procedures were followed during the selection of the agency.
“The CBSE has strictly followed the protocols of Public Finance Rules in awarding the contract to the agency. CBSE put out the RFP for digital evaluation of answer books for 2026 board examinations on the Central Public Procurement Portal on 28.08.2025 and awarded the contract to the qualified bidder,” the Board added in its response to Gandhi’s statements on X.
Rahul demands a judicial investigation
Before the CBSE issued its clarification, Gandhi demanded a judicial probe and a special probe into what he described as “massive manipulation” in the CBSE board examination results.
Read also | No need to tease ‘Class 12 result soon’, OSM, hacking class: CBSE chaos in May, clarifications
In a video message posted on X, the Congress leader questioned why Prime Minister Narendra Modi remained silent on the controversy. He also alleged that rules were flouted when awarding the contract to a Hyderabad-based company involved in the board’s digital evaluation process.
Gandhi also claimed that there was a relationship between the management of the company and the government.
Four questions asked by Rahul Gandhi
The Congress leader posted four questions on his X account regarding the contract and the company involved:
- “Why was the CBSE contract awarded to COEMPT, and on whose orders?”
- “What rules and procedures were broken to award this contract to the company?”
- “COEMPT was already involved in controversies under the name Globarena, so why didn’t CBSE know about it? Why weren’t background checks done?”
- “What exactly is the relationship between the COEMPT administration and the Modi government?”
Gandhi’s attacks on the government and CBSE come amid a raging controversy over CBSE’s use of the new on-screen marking system (OSM) for Class 12 board exams this year. The system is now at the center of the storm, with assessors saying OSM introduced a completely bizarre workflow, produced poor scans of answer scripts and incorrectly scored marks, while parents claimed many scripts were mixed up.
