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oi-Ashish Rana
The Central Board of Secondary Education’s rollout of on-screen marking (OSM) for Class 12 board examinations has come under intense scrutiny after internal records and evaluator accounts revealed concerns were raised well before the system was implemented nationwide. Teachers involved in preliminary trials said they had advised the board to delay the launch and conduct wider pilot projects, warning that the platform required better features, stronger training and more time for adaptation.
CBSE’s nationwide Class 12 on-screen marking (OSM) faced scrutiny for technical flaws and errors, despite governing body recommendations for wider pilot projects before implementation, resulting in significant student anxiety and a 208% increase in scanned answer sheet requests by May 26.
The controversy around OSM has grown in recent weeks as evaluators reported technical glitches, poor-quality answer-sheet scans and difficulties in marking digitally. At the same time, parents and students have questioned the accuracy of evaluations after multiple complaints surfaced regarding answer sheets and marking discrepancies.
Governing body suggested wider pilot projects
Minutes from a governing body meeting held in June 2025 show that members had recommended implementing OSM “only after completion of pilot projects in some subjects across various regional offices of the board”. The suggestion was formally noted by the governing body, but no such region-wise pilot programme was carried out before this year’s rollout.
Instead, CBSE conducted a limited two-day exercise in January involving around 100 teachers from five schools in Delhi. Teachers who participated in the trial said they flagged several concerns during the exercise itself.
“We told officials that OSM required at least a year or two of proper training before rollout. During evaluation from March 7 onwards, many teachers were unfamiliar with the software and effectively learnt while evaluating live answer scripts,” said a teacher who took part in both the dry run and the final evaluation process.
CBSE announced the implementation of OSM on February 9, only days before Class 12 examinations began on February 17. Evaluation work using the digital system started on March 7.
Teachers cite pressure and screen fatigue
Several evaluators said the transition to digital marking created a completely different workflow compared with conventional answer-sheet checking. According to teachers, the emphasis on completing evaluations quickly added further pressure.
“Teachers had daily targets. Speed mattered more than careful reading,” said a private school principal.
Teachers involved in the process said screen-based marking made it difficult to review answers thoroughly. Unlike physical copies, evaluators could not easily flip between pages or revisit previous answers.
“In manual checking, you can flip pages, revisit answers and catch missed steps. On screen, answers can be overlooked easily,” said a physics teacher involved in the evaluation process.
A mathematics teacher also pointed to the strain caused by long hours of screen-based checking. “Some evaluators were still figuring out the software while checking live answer books. With physical copies, unusual handwriting or answers written in corners are easier to notice. Digitally, they can be missed,” the teacher said.
CBSE organised a nationwide webinar on February 13 and later opened a training portal on February 15 to help evaluators practise using previous years’ answer books. At a press conference on May 17, officials said nearly 300,000 teachers had logged into the training portal, while around 77,000 eventually participated in evaluation work.
Technical glitches and rising student concerns
At the May 17 press conference, CBSE acknowledged that the OSM system faced technical issues in the initial phase, including login problems, server overload and scanning deficiencies.
According to officials, out of 9,866,622 answer books evaluated this year, 68,018 had to be rescanned because of poor image quality. Another 13,583 answer books were checked manually after repeated scanning attempts failed to produce clear copies.
The concerns have also reflected in the sharp rise in applications seeking scanned answer sheets after results were declared. By May 26, CBSE had received 404,319 applications requesting scanned copies of 1,131,961 Class 12 answer books. The figures represent an increase of more than 208% in applications and over 301% in answer-book requests compared with last year.
then how I was able to access production data on that site? all of the mirrors you had under the onmark domain had the same vulnerabilities.
its sad that you cant even investigate security reports properly. attaching screenshots as proof. https://t.co/zTEX8P7Eq1 pic.twitter.com/BiiXxzvuh2
— nisarga (@ni5arga) May 26, 2026
CBSE attributed the spike to the reduction in fees for scanned copies, which was cut from ₹700 to ₹100 per subject on May 17. However, students, parents and principals said the increase also showed growing anxiety about the evaluation process after the overall Class 12 pass percentage dropped by 3.19 percentage points to 85.20%, the lowest since 2019.
One of the most discussed incidents involved Class 12 student Vedant Shrivastava, who claimed that the physics answer sheet uploaded under his roll number did not belong to him. CBSE later admitted the mistake and uploaded the correct answer sheet.
A teacher associated with OSM evaluation said the issue may have occurred after repeated scanning failures forced the answer book into manual evaluation. “That is likely what happened in this case,” the teacher said. CBSE stated that such incidents were rare and said only two complaints of this nature had been reported this year.
Experts call for better preparation before expansion
CBSE had earlier experimented with OSM in 2014 for selected Class 10 subjects across different regions and two Class 12 subjects in Delhi. However, the initiative was scaled back at the time because of limitations related to connectivity and scanning.
Despite the present controversy, CBSE officials have indicated that OSM will continue for next year’s board examinations.
Former CBSE chairperson Ashok Ganguly said the idea behind digital evaluation was positive but needed far stronger groundwork before large-scale implementation.
“No doubt this is a good initiative but we need to be appropriately ready for this. Proper scanning, teacher training and retraining, fine-tuning of middle executives and revival of older robust systems such as the outlier mechanism are necessary to ensure credibility of the process,” he said.
Meanwhile, several students are still waiting to receive scanned copies of their answer sheets before the re-evaluation process begins. Ranchi-based student Sartha Sidhant said he had applied for five answer books more than five days ago but had received only two.
“I still have not received my Physics, Chemistry and Computer Science copies, and I need them to verify my answers before the re-evaluation window opens,” he said.
CBSE’s portal for verification of marks and re-evaluation is scheduled to open on May 29.
