Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Vedant, a Class 12 student from Delhi, found himself in a storm after he was brutally trolled online and called ‘Pakistani’ when he went to X to complain about getting unexpectedly low marks in Physics. He alleged that this was not just a case of ‘re-checking’ but could also be a serious case of exchange of answer sheets. Tagging error in CBSE’s Onscreen Marking System (OSM).
“After scoring unexpectedly low marks in Physics, we had applied for photocopies of our answer sheets through the CBSE revaluation process. Today we received the copies. And I am heartbroken because the Physics answer sheet uploaded by CBSE is not mine.”
“I know it is not my handwriting and it does not contain questions that I had solved… We carefully compared the Physics copy with my English answer sheet, my Computer Science answer sheet, my normal handwritten notes. The English and Computer Science copies clearly match each other. But the Physics copy seems to be of some other student entirely,” he added.
CBSE officials told The Hindu That there was indeed a mix-up regarding Vedanta’s Physics answer copy and his original answer copy was later found and handed over to him on Monday (May 25, 2026).
Sanjana, another student, told
“I applied for CBSE revaluation. The scanned copy of the chemistry sheet I received does not match my handwriting or written answers.”
Pradhan said, a detailed report has been sought from CBSE.
After several students complained about the new on-screen marking (OSM) system introduced by CBSE for evaluating Class 12 answer sheets, which has been rolled out digitally for the first time across the country, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said he had sought a detailed report on the irregularities from CBSE.
Mr Pradhan said, “IIT Madras and IIT Kanpur will look into the technical glitches arising in the CBSE portal. Those who have applied for revaluation will get a scanned copy. I have taken this seriously. The government is considering it in detail. I am confident that with the guidance of IIT Madras and IIT Kanpur, it will be resolved.”
Expert teams will implement focused technical improvements to systems and technical workflows and specifically examine portal stability and server performance. “The team will also check the overall IT infrastructure robustness and assist in taking corrective measures to ensure that login authentication, user access systems and payment gateways are accurate and in order,” an education ministry official said.
In the OSM system, instead of traditionally checking physical copies, evaluators checked the scanned answer sheets onscreen. Education Ministry officials confirmed that 98 lakh answer sheets were scanned and evaluated digitally. Experts said each answer sheet contained an average of twenty sheets, which meant around 1.96 crore pages were scanned in a compressed timeline at centers with varying infrastructure and partially trained staff.
CBSE had warned teachers as early as February 2026
CBSE was warned by teachers as early as February 2026 that evaluators had not received structured training to deal with the OSM system, even as the board moved forward with implementing it.
While CBSE had promised that the OSM method of evaluation would bring greater transparency, speed and accuracy, according to its own data, over 68,000 answer sheets had to be re-scanned due to poor image quality, and over 13,500 were taken out for manual rechecking.
In the results declared earlier this month, the Class 12 pass percentage dropped by three percentage points from last year to 85.20%. After scoring lower than expected marks, students started applying in large numbers for revaluation on the portal that opened on May 19 and it almost immediately closed due to the burden of applications.
After facing the glitch, students were stuck in the middle of the process as CBSE completely removed the application link from its website.
When the portal reopened on May 20, CBSE claimed that 1.27 lakh applications were submitted for 3.87 lakh scanned copies.
Students who had paid fees on May 20 reported that the payment has been deducted, but no confirmation has been received. “More than 24 hours after the outage, students were still in the dark. While some were later able to apply successfully, others still complained about the process not working. Login failures, application submission errors, download failures kept being reported,” said a parent of a CBSE Class 12 student. The HinduRequesting to remain anonymous.
Portal slipped into maintenance mode
As of May 21, the portal again went into maintenance mode. In an effort to improve the situation, CBSE extended the last date of application twice. On 22 May, it said that the extended last date for applications was 24 May. It later extended the deadline to May 25 (midnight). “It also promises to refund any extra payments deducted unnecessarily,” a CBSE official said.
Students who managed to access their scanned answer sheets shared screenshots on social media of copies that appeared blurry, unreadable or with curved pages. “Some scans showed overlapping elements – browser bars, timestamps – obscuring the actual written content. Students asked an obvious question – if we can’t read these copies, how did examiners evaluate them? Many students identified answers matching the official marking scheme – yet marks were deducted. Assessors have complained of screen fatigue, poor scan resolution and missed answers during the OSM process,” the academician and RTI activist Keshav Aggarwal told.
Many students got their main answer sheets but supplementary sheets were missing. Additionally, students have also considered the answers to multiple choice questions correct, but have been given zero marks. “In OSM, MCQs are evaluated through a digital overlay system, if the scan is misaligned the response and overlay may not match,” an official said. The Hindu.
CBSE has not commented on how the assessment quality was maintained when the OSM system was allegedly faulty.
“Class 12 CBSE students are under immense pressure and chasing a portal that keeps crashing while they are simultaneously preparing for RENEET exams, CUET UG exams and so on. Every hour wasted in visiting broken revaluation portals is an hour taken away from competitive exam preparation,” Mr Aggarwal pointed out.
Answer to RTI question
According to the response received to a Right to Information (RTI) query filed by Mr Aggarwal, CBSE said it had collected over ₹3 crore for providing photocopies of answer sheets to students in classes 10 and 12 for the financial year 2024-25. “Based on the above data it can be estimated that last year around 50,000 students applied (in classes 10 and 12 combined) to access the answer sheets. Moreover, the total fee received by CBSE for re-checking the results was more than Rs 20 crore, which was collected from the students,” Mr Aggarwal said.
In the current year, 1.27 lakh applications have been received from Class 12 students alone to access the answer sheets.
After the current year’s OSM fiasco, CBSE cut revaluation fees by up to 85% – the price of scanned copies now increased to ₹100 per subject from the earlier ₹600 (which was the cost in FY2024-25). “Full fee refund has been promised if the marks increase after revaluation,” a CBSE official said.
“However, CBSE should conduct a formal technical audit, and take accountability to scan for deficiencies, and provide clarity on how the quality of assessment can be maintained,” argued Mr Agarwal.
Congress general secretary in-charge of communications, Jairam Ramesh, said CBSE has introduced the on-screen marking (OSM) system for Class 12 board exams, which has disrupted the educational future of lakhs of children across the country.
By bringing in IIT-Kanpur to help solve these technical issues, he is portraying himself as a savior. The real question is why were these issues not anticipated? Why did CBSE and the Ministry not plan carefully before adopting this OSM system? Why did it take so long for the minister to respond to this issue?” Mr. Ramesh said.
“The country owes its resignation to the country and the Prime Minister owes us an answer as to why this minister – who is openly disrupting the future of India’s students by his incompetence – has been allowed to remain in office for so long,” he said.
