CBSE Rolled Out OSM Without Regional Trials: Report

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By TRH News Desk

CBSE Rolled Out On-Screen Marking Without Regional Trials, Teachers Raised Red Flags: HT Report

New Delhi, May 27, 2026 — The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) introduced its controversial On-Screen Marking (OSM) system for Class 12 board evaluation this year without conducting regional pilot projects, despite concerns raised by teachers and suggestions from members of its governing body, according to a report by Hindustan Times.

The report stated that minutes of a governing body meeting held in June 2025 showed members had recommended that OSM be implemented in all subjects only after completing pilot projects across regional offices of the board.

However, HT reported that “no such pilots were conducted before this year’s rollout.”

Instead, CBSE reportedly carried out only a two-day exercise involving about 100 teachers from five Delhi schools in January. Teachers who participated in the exercise told HT they had advised the board not to proceed immediately and sought better features, more training and additional preparation time.

The report said the system later became the centre of controversy as students, teachers and parents raised concerns over evaluation errors.

According to HT, students reported issues such as answer scripts of other candidates being uploaded under their roll numbers, truncated or blurry scans, and unchecked answers.

Teachers quoted in the report also highlighted operational challenges. Evaluators allegedly struggled with unfamiliar software, faced pressure to meet daily targets, and reported that screen fatigue particularly affected step-marking in subjects such as Mathematics and Physics.

The report noted that 13,583 answer books eventually required manual checking after repeated scanning failures, while 404,319 applications for scanned copies had been received since May 13, representing a 208% jump over last year.

CBSE had earlier acknowledged one such evaluation mismatch involving Class 12 student Vedant Shrivastava, after the student alleged that a Physics answer sheet uploaded under his roll number did not belong to him.

Former CBSE chairperson Ashok Ganguly told HT that proper scanning, retraining and process fine-tuning were essential to ensure the credibility of the evaluation process.