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03-06-2026
Bureau Report
NEW DELHI: What began as one student’s viral complaint about a mismatch between the physical and digital copies of his Grade 12 physics answer sheet has snowballed into a major controversy around one of India’s biggest and most important school-leaving exams?
Days after the government-run Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) announced its Grade 12 – equivalent to UK’s A-level results, dozens of students complained about errors in their marks allegedly linked to a newly-launched digital evaluation system used in the exam.
Called On-Screen Marking (OSM), the system works by scanning physical copies of answer-sheets and uploading them on an online portal for teachers to evaluate.
A software then calculates total marks in each exam. According to the education board, the system was introduced to reduce human error and effort and to increase transparency and efficiency.
While students often reported errors in manual evaluation, they say the new system has caused new problems instead of fixing old ones. Some say the scanned copies of answer sheets were blurry, which may have affected marks. Others say pages were missing, answers were marked wrongly, or the digital copies did not match the original paper answer sheets. CBSE has responded to the allegations by saying that it remained committed to a “fair and transparent evaluation process”.
“All genuine concerns related to scanned answer books or evaluation will be reviewed by subject experts through the prescribed mechanism,” it said.
On Thursday, federal Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that it was the first time that the CBSE was using OSM, which he described as a “student-centric” and “globally accepted” system. He also acknowledged that “some discrepancies (in the results) had come to light”.
“I take responsibility for this and assure you that a solution will be found. We are working on it. We will not leave any student’s query unaddressed,” he said.
The students’ complaints have sparked national outrage and brought the education board’s digital evaluation system under the scanner.
Parents and educationists have questioned whether teachers received enough training and proper technology to run the new marking system effectively.
For millions of Indian students, CBSE exams are not just tests, they are gateways to college admissions, careers and social mobility.
CBSE is also one of the country’s largest education boards, with about two million students taking the Grade 12 exam this year. India also has state-run, private and international school boards.
Another reason why this issue has made national headlines is because it comes on the back of a controversy surrounding another crucial exam, the National Eligibility Entrance Test (Undergraduate), known as NEET-UG which is the gateway to studying medicine in India.
Allegations of a paper leak in May led to the exam being cancelled, impacting nearly 2.28 million candidates who wrote the test, and leading to a spate of alleged suicides.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of neglecting the country’s youth. He also demanded the education minister’s resignation over the controversies, alleging the system was rigged and students had to turn to social media for justice.
Pradhan has accused Gandhi of not supporting India’s “scientific progress” and accused him of playing political games.
