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CBSE detected around 20 cases where students were shown answer sheets belonging to other candidates after the board introduced its On-Screen Marking (OSM) system this year.
CBSE has circulated a social media toolkit for the school principals amid the OSM controversy. (Source: PTI)
The Central Board of Secondary Education’s first attempt at large-scale digital evaluation has come under scrutiny after answer-sheet mix-ups, scanning problems and previously flagged technical concerns surfaced following the declaration of Class 12 results.
Government sources told PTI that CBSE detected around 20 cases where students were shown answer sheets belonging to other candidates after the board introduced its On-Screen Marking (OSM) system this year. More than 13,000 answer sheets also had to be evaluated manually after scanned copies failed to meet the standards required for digital assessment.
Mismatched answer sheets
The issue emerged during the post-result verification process when students accessed scanned copies of their answer books through the CBSE portal. Some students discovered that the answer sheets uploaded against their names did not belong to them.
One such case involved Class 12 student Vedant, who claimed on social media that the Physics answer sheet provided during re-evaluation was not his. Another student, Sanjana, reported a similar problem.
The mismatches reportedly occurred during the scanning process. After complaints were received, CBSE contacted the students and provided the correct answer sheets.
Massive digital evaluation exercise
The OSM system was introduced for Class 12 board examinations this year.
Under the new model, answer sheets were scanned and evaluated digitally. According to sources, more than 98 lakh answer booklets, amounting to nearly 40 crore pages, were scanned during the process. Officials said around 68,000 answer sheets were found to have scanning-quality issues and had to be scanned again.
Even after rescanning, more than 13,000 answer sheets failed to meet the required standards and were therefore checked manually.
The controversy has also affected post-result services. CBSE postponed the launch of its Class 12 verification and re-evaluation portal from May 29 to June 1.
The board expects a large number of applications, with reports suggesting more than four lakh requests had already been received for scanned copies of answer books. Sources said answer sheets could also be made available through DigiLocker from next year alongside mark sheets.
Earlier report had flagged concerns?
The current controversy has drawn attention to an internal observation report prepared after a dry run of the OSM system in five Delhi schools in January 2026. The report, submitted on January 21, flagged at least 36 technical, operational and evaluation-related concerns before the system was implemented nationally.
Among the concerns were risks of “blind or superficial checking”, limited supervisory oversight, lack of safeguards against data loss and the absence of opportunities for evaluators to discuss or standardise marking.
The report also noted that evaluators could submit scripts after assigning arbitrary marks without fully reading answers.
Additional Head Examiners were reportedly unable to return scripts for correction when errors were detected and could not freely review answer sheets of their choice for quality checks.
Technical concerns included slow performance, absence of auto-save features, difficulty viewing question papers and marking schemes together, hidden student content, subject-code inconsistencies and evaluator fatigue caused by long answers.
Coempt’s contract in spotlight
The project has also attracted political attention. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi questioned the award of the contract to Coempt, citing its past record in Telangana.
As per reports, the bidding process followed established procedures. They said Coempt and Tata Consultancy Services were the two technically qualified bidders in the final round.
According to sources, Coempt quoted approximately Rs 24.75 per answer booklet, including taxes, while TCS quoted around Rs 65-66 per booklet before taxes, making Coempt the lowest bidder.
Officials maintained that challenges were expected when introducing a system of such scale but said technology-based evaluation remains central to future examination reforms.
Delhi, India, India
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