‘I take responsibility’: Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan says CBSE OSM issues will be rectified

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, on Thursday, said the Centre would take responsibility for the discrepancies that have emerged in Central Board of Secondary Education’s newly implemented On-Screen Marking (OSM) system, assuring students that all concerns related to evaluation and scanned answer sheets would be addressed.

Speaking to the media on May 28 amid the continuing controversy surrounding the CBSE Class 12 evaluation process, Pradhan said, “This is the first time CBSE has implemented this system in the country. Certain discrepancies have come to our notice, and I take responsibility for them. These issues will be rectified, and appropriate solutions will be worked out. All of us are engaged in this task. We will not leave a single student’s unanswered query or concern unresolved.”

Meanwhile, CBSE has continued to defend the technical infrastructure behind the OSM system.

In a recent post shared through its official social media handles, the board maintained that “no compromise or vulnerability has been reported in the actual evaluation portal.”

The board also said the platform had been “tested and certified through empanelled security audits” and that “multiple quality checks and safeguards ensure secure scanning and processing of answer books.” 

What happened so far

The controversy began shortly after CBSE declared Class 12 board examination results on May 13. Initially, several students alleged unexpectedly low scores and raised concerns about discrepancies in the newly launched OSM evaluation process.

The issue escalated further after CBSE opened the portal allowing students to access scanned copies of evaluated answer sheets.

Soon after, students began sharing complaints regarding blurred scans, unchecked pages, missing pages, answer sheet mismatches, and evaluation discrepancies. In several cases, students also alleged that the answer sheets uploaded under their roll numbers did not belong to them at all.

CBSE later acknowledged at least some of these cases publicly, rectified the issue, and sent corrected copies to affected students.

The controversy has led to strong public backlash, with students and parents raising concerns regarding the reliability of the digital evaluation and post-result support process.

Re-evaluation process to begin

Speaking on the next steps, Pradhan said a re-evaluation process would now begin for students seeking clarification or review of their marks.

“Today, certain issues have come to light regarding the CBSE Class 12 examination evaluation process, and a re-evaluation process will now begin,” he said.

The development comes a day after CBSE released fresh figures regarding its post-result support process.

According to the board, as of 6 pm on May 26, it had received 4,04,319 applications, covering requests for 11,31,961 answer books.

The board further announced that the portal for verification and re-evaluation of answer books is expected to go live by May 29.

Over 40 crore pages scanned and evaluated

Highlighting the scale of the operation, the Education Minister said nearly 17 lakh students had appeared for the CBSE Class 12 examinations this year.

“Today, certain issues have come to light regarding the CBSE Class 12 examination evaluation process… Around 17 lakh students appeared for the examination, and the answer sheets of each student have been securely preserved,” Pradhan said.

He added that CBSE had digitally processed an unprecedented volume of answer sheets under the OSM system.

“In total, there are 98 lakh answer-sheet copies, with each copy consisting of around 40 pages, which means nearly 40 crore scanned pages were evaluated for the first time by CBSE through the OSM process,” he said.

Calling the system a “student-centric” and “progressive instrument,” the minister argued that it is aimed at increasing transparency in evaluation by allowing students to directly access scanned copies of their answer sheets.

Reacting to the criticism from opposition parties, particularly responding to recent remarks made by Leader of Opposition and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi over the ongoing CBSE OSM controversy, the minister said that it is “not the time for politics.”

“Right now, the most important thing is that the mental stress of these students and examinees should not increase further,” he said.