CBSE portal glitches cause class 12 students to find trouble in revaluation

After several students complained about the new on-screen marking (OSM) system introduced by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) this year for the evaluation of Class 12 answers, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said he has asked the CBSE for a detailed report on the glitches.

CBSE has recently been in the eye of the storm with Class 12 students and parents complaining about the OSM system and the problems they face in the revaluation process after completing the board exam.

“IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) Madras and IIT Kanpur will look into the technical glitch faced by the CBSE portal. Those who have applied for revaluation will get a scanned copy. I am taking it seriously. The government is looking into it in detail. I am sure it will be resolved with the management of IIT Madras and IIT Kanpur,” said Mr. Pradhan.

Expert teams will implement targeted technological improvements to systems and technical workflows, and will specifically examine portal stability and server performance. “The team will also examine the overall robustness of the IT infrastructure and help take remedial measures to ensure that login authentication, user access systems and payment gateways are accurate and in order,” an education ministry official explained.

Cong. slams the minister

On Monday (May 25, 2026), Congress General Secretary (Communication) Jairam Ramesh slammed the CBSE for introducing the OSM system for Class 12 board exams, which he said has thrown the academic future of millions of children across the country into disarray.

“He is portraying himself as some kind of savior by bringing in IIT-Kanpur to help solve these technical problems. The question is, why were these problems not anticipated? Why did CBSE and the ministry not plan carefully before adopting this OSM system? Why did the minister take so long to respond to this problem?” said Mr. Ramesh.

“Mantri Pradhan owes the country his resignation and Pradhan Mantri owes us answers as to why this minister – who is openly undermining the future of Indian students with his incompetence – has been allowed to continue for so long,” he said.

In the OSM system, the evaluators checked the screen-scanned answer sheets instead of the traditional check of physical copies. Education Ministry officials confirmed that 98,000 answer books have been digitally scanned and evaluated. Experts said that each answer book has an average of 20 sheets, which means that nearly 1.96 million pages were scanned in a compressed timeline, at centers with different infrastructure and semi-trained staff.

On Monday, a Class 12 student from Delhi was brutally trolled for taking X to complain about the unexpectedly low marks he got in Physics. He argued that this may not be just a “recheck” problem, but a serious discrepancy in the answer sheet or a marking error in the OSM system. “We have asked for photocopies of my answer sheets. And I am shocked because the physics answer sheet uploaded by CBSE is not mine,” said the student.

CBSE officials told The Hindu that there was indeed a mix-up regarding the student’s physics answer sheet and he was given his original answer book. Other students complained similarly.

CBSE was warned by teachers as early as February 2026 that evaluators had not received structured training in the OSM system. While the CBSE promised that the OSM evaluation method would lead to greater transparency, speed and accuracy, according to its own data, over 68,000 answer books had to be rescanned due to poor image quality and over 13,500 were withdrawn for manual checking.

Problems with the portal

In results announced earlier this month, the class 12 pass percentage dropped by three percentage points to 85.20% from last year. Students who got lower-than-expected marks started applying for revaluation in droves on the portal, which was launched on May 19 and crashed almost immediately due to heavy traffic.

After encountering the glitch, students were stuck in the middle of the process as CBSE completely pulled the link of the application from its website. The portal then reopened on May 20.

Students who paid tuition on May 20 said the payment was deducted but received no confirmation. “Students were in the dark even after more than 24 hours of the glitch. Some were able to successfully log in later, others still complained about the process not working. Login errors, application submission errors, download failures continued to be reported,” a parent of a Class 12 CBSE student told The Hindu.

On May 21, the portal slipped into maintenance mode again. CBSE has extended the application deadline twice – in an attempt to rectify the situation.

Students who managed to access their scanned answer sheets shared screenshots on social media of copies that appeared blurry, illegible or with pages turned over. “Some scans showed overlapping elements – browser bars, time stamps – obscuring the actual written content. Students asked the obvious question – if we can’t read these copies, how did the examiners mark them? A few students identified answers that corresponded to the official marking scheme – but marks were deducted. Assessors complained of screen fatigue, scan resolution and missed answers during the OSM process,” the educator pointed out ARTIhavgar.

Many students received booklets with key answers but missing supplementary sheets. In addition, students also identified answers to multiple-choice questions marked as correct but scored zero points. “In OSM, MCQs are evaluated through a digital overlay system, if the scan is misaligned, the answer and the overlay may not match,” an official told The Hindu.

CBSE did not comment on how the quality of evaluation was maintained when the OSM system was allegedly faulty.

“However, CBSE should conduct a formal technical audit and take responsibility for the scanning deficiencies and provide a clear picture of how the quality of assessments can be maintained,” Mr. Agarwal argued.

Published – 25 May 2026 20:42 IST