Weeks after the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) announced the Class XII results, the controversy over the on-screen marking (OSM) system continues, with students now alleging incorrect marks, unclear scans of answer sheets, and frequent glitches in the re-evaluation portal.
Many students in various disciplines, especially in subjects such as physics, mathematics, accounting and economics, had previously claimed that they received unexpectedly low grades despite strong academic performance during the academic year.
The Board then opened the process of checking marks, accessing scanned answer books and re-evaluation. But students now say the reassessment mechanism itself has revealed deeper flaws.
“Unclear answer sheets, undefined answers.”
However, after downloading scanned copies of assessed answer sheets, several students claimed that parts of the documents were so unclear that the handwriting itself was difficult to read.
“How do evaluators check copies if the students themselves cannot read the scanned pages?” one user wrote on X while sharing screenshots of allegedly blurred pages from an evaluated answer book.
Other students claimed that the answers and calculations they made were not completely verified. Some claimed that the marks awarded on individual pages did not match the final totals given in the result.
According to a report by news agency ANI, many complaints also centered around the lack of progressive marks in digital subjects, with students claiming that marks were being ignored or awarded inconsistently.
Students also raised concerns that answers spread across multiple pages may have only been partially assessed under the digital system.
Gate crashes add to the frustration
Apart from assessment-related complaints, students also reported frequent technical errors on the re-assessment portal. Many have claimed that the website frequently crashes while paying and placing the order.
“The portal is not working properly. Payments are failing, copies are not loading,” one user wrote on X. Another student claimed that the site became inaccessible during peak hours.
The criticism comes amid an ongoing backlash over the rollout of the OSM system, which was implemented for Class 12 assessments this year.
What is the OSM controversy
Under the OSM system introduced this year, answer sheets are digitally scanned and assessed by teachers on computer screens rather than physically checked.
The controversy erupted after the overall pass percentage for Class 12 dropped to 85.20% this year from 88.39% last year. This is the lowest success rate recorded since 2019.
Students point out that the newly introduced system, through which CBSE evaluated 98,66,622 digital answer books under OSM, may have been responsible for the 3.19 per cent drop in pass percentage. CBSE added that 13,583 copies had to be scanned manually as repeated scanning attempts failed to create clear images.
CBSE advocates digital assessment system
Even as criticism mounted, CBSE and union education ministry officials defended the new technology-driven assessment process earlier this week, arguing that the system ensures greater transparency and objectivity in assessment.
Sanjay Kumar, Secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy, said in a press conference on Sunday that fluctuations in Class 12 results were not new and that relaxations in the pandemic era had earlier inflated pass rates.
“The system is now stabilizing, and the marking process has become much more objective,” Kumar said.
He also stressed that the assessment method itself is essentially unchanged, except that answer sheets are assessed digitally rather than physically.
“Only the teachers evaluated each transcript in OSM and no artificial intelligence was used to evaluate the answer scripts,” Singh stressed.
CBSE cuts revaluation fees after backlash
After widespread criticism from students and parents, CBSE has also revised the revaluation fee structure.
Under the revised structure, the fee for obtaining scanned copies of assessed answer sheets has been reduced to $100 for each topic of $700. Marks verification fees have also been reduced to $100 of $500.
At the same time, the re-evaluation fee for specific questions has been reduced $100 l $25 per question.
(With inputs from Sanjay Maurya)
