CBSE Class 12 OSM row: Why students are flagging answer sheet gaps

Several CBSE Class 12 students have flagged answer sheet mismatches, missing pages and portal glitches during re-evaluation, putting the board's OSM system under scrutiny

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is facing mounting criticism after several Class 12 students reported discrepancies in digitally uploaded answer sheets during the re-evaluation process.

 

Students across subjects have alleged that scanned copies available on the CBSE portal did not match the answer sheets they had written during the board examinations. Complaints ranged from missing pages and blank answer sheets to answers appearing under incorrect roll numbers.

 

Many students took to social media platform X to highlight the issue, sharing screenshots and tagging CBSE, the Ministry of Education, and senior officials. Some claimed the uploaded copies showed entirely different handwriting, while others alleged that supplementary sheets were missing from the scanned records.

 

The controversy gained traction after several students demanded a fresh evaluation process and greater transparency in the board’s digital assessment system.

CBSE responds to answer sheet complaints

Amid complaints over answer sheet mismatches and portal glitches, CBSE has said grievances related to the re-evaluation and OSM process are being treated on “top priority”, while assuring “all possible support” to affected students, The Indian Express reported.

 

The board said genuine grievances would be examined individually and corrected where required. CBSE has also advised affected students to raise concerns through official grievance channels.

 

The crisis prompted Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to intervene and call in experts from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras and Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur to examine the software used by CBSE. Four public sector banks were also brought in after students reported payment failures and excess deductions during the re-evaluation process.

 

Business Standard reached the board for comment. This story will be updated when a response is received. 

What is CBSE’s OSM system?

CBSE introduced the On-Screen Marking (OSM) system for Class 12 board examinations this year in phases to digitise and streamline the evaluation process. Under the system, physical answer sheets are scanned and uploaded digitally before examiners evaluate them on a secure online platform.

 

CBSE has expanded digital evaluation in recent years as part of broader examination reforms aimed at improving efficiency and transparency.

 

However, the current situation has raised questions about possible vulnerabilities in the system, including scanning errors, incorrect uploads, missing supplementary sheets, tagging mismatches and server-related glitches.

 

While rolling out the system, CBSE said OSM would ensure “faster evaluation with wider teacher participation", with teachers remaining in their schools, minimising transport and logistical costs. It said the system would help eliminate totalling errors and reduce manual intervention.

Was the OSM rollout rushed?

The latest episode has put the system under fresh scrutiny. CBSE significantly expanded OSM for Class 12 examinations this year, with nearly 77,000 teachers involved in on-screen assessment. Several educators have said the transition may have been implemented without adequate preparation.

 

A DAV school teacher quoted by India Today said they had not been “adequately trained before the rollout.” “They have not trained teachers properly for the new system and applied it in a hurry. Now we are witnessing chaos unleashed by the OSM system,” she said.

What students are demanding

Affected students are demanding manual verification of disputed answer sheets, extension of re-evaluation deadlines and compensation for additional fees paid during the process.

 

Several students have also urged CBSE to allow access to original physical copies wherever discrepancies are reported. Others have sought an independent audit of the digital evaluation process.

 

Parents and student groups have argued that errors in scanned answer sheets could directly affect college admissions and entrance-related cut-offs, making the issue particularly serious for Class 12 candidates.

Critics question transparency of digital evaluation

Experts tracking digital examination systems have also flagged operational and technical gaps in the rollout of CBSE’s OSM evaluation framework. According to Maneesh Singh, CEO of ExamOnline, the transition to large-scale digital evaluation appeared “overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the rollout”, with reported issues including server crashes, blurred scans and metadata mismatches.

 

“One of the key challenges observed in the OSM system was maintaining consistency in data integrity and digitisation quality during large-scale execution. In several cases, scanned answer sheets reportedly required rescanning due to image clarity issues, with around 70,000 answer books needing to be rescanned and another approximately 15,000 being shifted to physical evaluation where the scanned copies were not sufficiently readable,” he told Business Standard.

 

Social media posts highlighted recurring complaints about portal crashes and access delays during the re-evaluation window, arguing that technical failures can undermine trust in high-stakes examination systems.

 

Singh agreed that implementation could potentially have benefited “from a more phased and iterative rollout approach". Conducting regional pilot programmes over a longer duration may have provided opportunities to test scanning workflows, hardware performance, metadata validation processes and evaluator training mechanisms under different operating conditions, he said.

 

The controversy has renewed debate over whether fully digitised evaluation systems require stronger verification mechanisms and human oversight before they are scaled further across national examinations.