Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Thursday admitted that discrepancies had emerged in the CBSE Class 12 on-screen marking process and said strict action would be taken against those found responsible.
The Ministry of Education has come under scrutiny after concerns were raised over the scanning and digital evaluation of answer sheets under CBSE’s On-Screen Marking (OSM) system. The system was introduced for the Class 12 examinations, under which original answer sheets were scanned and evaluated by teachers on computer screens.
Pradhan chaired a review meeting with CBSE officials, while experts from IIT Kanpur and IIT Madras were also brought in to examine the process. He said this was the first time CBSE had scanned nearly 40 crore pages for digital evaluation, and admitted that some discrepancies had surfaced.
The minister said efforts were underway to correct the errors and assured that no student would be allowed to suffer because of the issue. According to him, around 4 lakh students have applied for re-evaluation, while 11 lakh have sought copies of their answer sheets out of nearly 17 lakh students.
Pradhan said the IIT teams were examining the software coding and other technical aspects of the OSM process. He expressed regret over the matter and said negligence, if established, would invite strict action.
He also said action would be taken against the company responsible for scanning the answer sheets if irregularities were found on its part.
The minister, however, urged Congress leader Rahul Gandhi not to politicise the issue or attempt to draw political mileage from it.
The controversy over alleged errors in marks awarded through the OSM system has triggered concern among students and parents, placing the CBSE and the Ministry of Education under intense scrutiny.