Inside CBSE’s digital evaluation fiasco: Let Me Explain 139 | Pooja Prasanna
When Vedant spoke about it online, several right wing handles abused him and called him a Pakistani.
Then another student discovered the answer sheet in his name was not in his handwriting.
And these students aren’t alone. Students from across India are reporting crashed portals, failed payments, and shockingly low marks, especially in Physics and Chemistry.
The situation became so serious that IIT experts had to be brought in for emergency intervention.
One of India’s biggest examination systems is under a cloud.
The CBSE has several questions to answer.
The CBSE has several questions to answer
Why did the CBSE not do a single regional trial before rolling out the new system?
Why was the board in a tearing hurry to implement digital evaluation?
And why is the board continuously denying an ethical hacker's claim that the system was deeply flawed?
Let me explain.
Our job as journalists is to ask questions and not be like Ashok Srivastav- a Doordarshan news anchor who called Vedant a Pakistani.
Let Me Explain is a show that not just explains but believes in asking questions
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CBSE introduced the On-Screen Marking system this year as a major reform.
Instead of physical answer sheets being checked at evaluation centres, copies would now be scanned, uploaded, and marked digitally through an online portal.
CBSE claimed the system would reduce human error, eliminate totalling mistakes, speed up results, and make evaluation more transparent.
But here’s where things get interesting.
Documents accessed by us show that the tender for this massive overhaul was floated only in November 2025.
Two companies cleared the technical criteria: Hyderabad-based Coempt Edu Teck Pvt Ltd and Tata Consultancy Services.
CBSE has never publicly disclosed who finally got the contract.
But eventually Coempt got the contract
And Coempt has a past.
The company was previously known as Globarena Technologies Private Limited, a name many in Telangana will remember from the 2019 Intermediate exam fiasco.
That year, lakhs of students reported discrepancies in results, and at least 20 students died by suicide amid the crisis.
Their CEO_ VSN Raju- had at the time told the news minute that these kind of errors happen every year but things were being politicised
So the obvious question is: why was a company linked to one of India’s worst exam controversies associated with another high-stakes national rollout?
And why the rush?
As I said, CBSE floated the tender for the on screen marking in November 2025. By February 2026, CBSE had already announced the nationwide rollout of OSM.
According to a Hindustan Times report, governing body members had recommended regional pilot projects before implementation. But CBSE allegedly ignored the suggestion.
There was reportedly just one pilot in Delhi involving around 100 teachers in January 2026, followed by a single training session in February for nearly two lakh teachers.
Even after complaints that the system was unstable and difficult to use, CBSE pushed ahead.
Large technological transitions are usually gradual. Pilot projects. Stress tests. External audits. Backup systems.
But CBSE appears to have transformed one of India’s biggest examination systems all at once.
That is risky governance.
Especially in a country where digital infrastructure remains deeply unequal.
So why the hurry?
And now to the security threats to the system itself
19-year-old Nisarga Adhikari- an ethical hacker- checked the on screen marking system in February itself. He found it was easy to bypass the OTP authentication, reset passwords, impersonate examiners and even alter marks.
Nisarga says he immediately wrote to CERT- India’s computer emergency response team- but got just a standard response. Nisarga published his findings in a blog only recently after the results were out.
The CBSE flatly denied the allegations and said that the code Nisarga used was from a testing site.
Nisarga’s claims have been verified by other professional hackers but all that we get from CBSE is a denial, not a promise to probe
Suddenly, one terrifying question is hanging over India’s biggest school board: How many students are actually affected?
Let me also run you through how events actually panned out
On paper, CBSE’s idea sounded modern.
But almost immediately after Class 12 results were announced, complaints began flooding social media.
Students alleged unexpectedly low marks, particularly in Physics and Chemistry.
CBSE’s own data showed the Class 12 pass percentage dropped by over 3 percent compared to last year.
Now, a tougher evaluation standard by itself is not necessarily unfair. Boards can tighten marking schemes.
But what transformed concern into outrage was when students began applying for scanned copies of their answer sheets.
A few students said the answer sheets they applied for were not even theirs.
Like Moksh. Who said that after getting 33 out of 80, he applied for his answer sheet. And was shocked to find it was not even his.
Or Sanjana who also received somebody else’s answersheet, in somebody else’s handwriting.
Some students reported receiving blurred scans where handwriting was barely visible.
Then came the allegation that exploded online: a student named Vedant said the Physics answer sheet uploaded under his roll number did not belong to him at all.
CBSE eventually acknowledged an error and later shared what it said was the correct answer sheet.
That changed everything.
Students began asking a terrifying question: if one answer sheet could be mismatched, how many others could have been affected?
And remember — this is not a small internal school exam.
These are board exams that determine college admissions, scholarships, eligibility criteria, competitive exam qualifications, and in many cases, entire career trajectories.
For engineering aspirants especially, a difference of even five marks can decide admissions.
What made matters worse was the condition of the re-evaluation infrastructure itself.
Students encountered repeated portal crashes, failed logins, payment gateway failures, duplicate deductions, and inaccessible servers.
Some students never received answer copies.
Others were charged incorrect amounts.
The portal simply could not handle demand.
The Union Education Ministry had to intervene.
IIT Madras and IIT Kanpur experts were deployed, four public sector banks were brought in to strengthen payment systems.
Think about how serious that is.
Teachers and evaluators also complained about poor scan quality and that they struggled with blurred images and technical instability while checking scripts.
Now imagine evaluating hundreds of Physics derivations or Chemistry numericals on a glitchy screen instead of paper.
This matters enormously in subjects like Physics and Mathematics, where students often solve problems creatively.
So even if the software functions perfectly, the evaluation philosophy itself changes.
And that’s the bigger debate emerging now: did CBSE introduce a technological solution without fully understanding its educational consequences?
Because education is not just data processing.
CBSE has not denied all concerns. The board has acknowledged certain technical issues, extended deadlines, promised refunds, and initiated corrective action. But the credibility damage is already done.
Because students no longer see this as an isolated inconvenience. They see it as proof that the institutions governing their futures may not be as competent as advertised.
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