'Mantri Pradhan' should resign, 'Pradhan Mantri' owes answers: Congress on CBSE glitches

New Delhi: With the CBSE set to engage IIT-Madras and IIT-Kanpur experts to address technical challenges in its post-result services portal, the Congress on Monday attacked the government, saying the "Mantri Pradhan" should step down and the 'Pradhan Mantri' owed people an explanation for why the minister was being allowed to continue.

Congress general secretary in-charge of communications, Jairam Ramesh, said the CBSE introduced an On-Screen Marking (OSM) system for Class 12 board examinations, which has thrown into chaos the academic futures of lakhs of children across the country.

"The Grade 12 pass percentage has declined by an unprecedented 3 percentage points (from 88% to 85%), and the process has been plagued by irregularities - blurred and illegible answer sheets, erroneous marking, incorrect answer sheets being attributed to students, payment delays, and outrageous revaluation fees being demanded from students," Ramesh said on X.

The education minister, who is presiding over "total institutional collapse", has finally woken up to this "tragedy" more than a week after it first came to light, the Congress leader said.

"He’s portraying himself as some saviour by bringing in IIT-Kanpur to help address these technical issues. The question really is why these issues were not anticipated? Why did the CBSE and the ministry not plan carefully before adopting this OSM system? Why did it take the minister so long to respond to this issue?" Ramesh said.

"The Mantri Pradhan owes the country his resignation, and the Pradhan Mantri owes us answers to why this minister -- who is openly disrupting the future of India’s students with his ineptitude -- has been allowed to continue for so long," he said.

The education ministry on Sunday said that the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will engage experts from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and IIT-Kanpur to address technical challenges in its post-result services portal.

The move comes amid complaints from students and parents over glitches in the CBSE re-evaluation process.

The ministry said Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has given directions to depute teams of professors and technical experts from IIT-Madras and IIT-Kanpur to examine all technical issues reported since the rollout of this year's post-examination re-evaluation services and assist the CBSE in ensuring a glitch-free process.

"The expert team will implement focused technological improvements of the systems and technical workflows and will specifically examine portal stability and server performance," it said.

"The team will also examine the overall IT Infrastructure robustness and assist in taking corrective measures to ensure that login authentication/user access systems/payment gateways are accurate and in order," the ministry said in a statement.

Pradhan reiterated that "student interests remain paramount" and that all necessary corrective measures need to be undertaken by CBSE on priority to ensure a "transparent, efficient and student-friendly system," the statement added.

On Saturday, Pradhan also sought a detailed report from the CBSE over complaints of technical glitches faced by students during the re-evaluation process.