New Delhi: Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Thursday accepted responsibility for discrepancies linked to the Central Board of Secondary Education’s (CBSE) On-Screen Marking (OSM) system and assured students that corrective measures were being taken to address the issue.
Speaking after a meeting with CBSE officials in New Delhi, Pradhan said, “I take responsibility. It will be fixed, a solution will be found. We are all working on that task.” He also assured that strict action would be taken if any deliberate negligence or wrongdoing was discovered in the evaluation process, reported India Today.
The controversy erupted after students and parents raised concerns over blurred scanned answer sheets, allegedly unchecked answers, portal crashes, payment failures, and confusion during the re-evaluation process for
Class 12 examinations.
Defending the OSM system, Pradhan described it as a “progressive” and student-centric digital evaluation model already adopted by institutions globally to improve transparency. He said CBSE had scanned nearly 40 crore pages from approximately 98 lakh answer sheets of around 17 lakh students who appeared for the examinations.
The minister said experts from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and Indian Institute of Technology Madras had been brought in to help resolve technical and operational issues related to the system.
Addressing the political controversy surrounding the issue, Pradhan responded to criticism from Rahul Gandhi, who had questioned the handling of the evaluation process and alleged irregularities. The minister said CBSE had followed government procurement rules and reiterated that accountability would be fixed if any lapses were found.
Pradhan also appealed to political parties and the public not to increase anxiety among students. He stressed that reducing mental stress for examinees should remain the priority while the government worked to resolve all pending grievances related to verification and re-evaluation.
Firm that handled OSM responds
Meanwhile, VSN Raju, CEO of Hyderabad-based Coempt Edu Tech, that handled the OSM, has defended the digital evaluation platform. According to reports, he said the complaints flagged so far were isolated and not indicative of a major and widespread technological failure.