In a major change in the Class 12 assessment this year, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has implemented a completely digital on-screen marking (OSM) system. But with the advent of this new system, there has been a stir among students and parents. Many students have complained that their scanned answer sheets were blurry, some had pages missing, and some were shown a copy of another student. This technical glitch has given rise to a new debate whether India’s largest examination board was fully prepared for this big digital transformation and what technology do other countries of the world resort to to check the copies.

What is the on-screen marking system?

On-Screen Marking or OSM is actually a modern system of digital evaluation of copies. Under this system, teachers are not given actual copies of the paper to check, rather they give marks by looking at the scanned digital copy of the copies on the computer screen. As usual, students have to write their examinations on paper answer sheets in the traditional manner. After the examination is over, all these copies are scanned at secure centres. After this, these digital files are sent online to evaluators across the country, keeping the identity of the students secret.

CBSE’s past experience and efforts

CBSE says that this idea of ​​checking copies digitally is not completely new for them. The Board had first taken steps towards adopting the OSM system in the year 2014, but due to non-availability of suitable and advanced scanning technology at that time, this plan had to be stopped midway. In those days, to scan the copies, their binding had to be cut from the middle, due to which there was a huge risk of the pages of the copies getting mixed together or getting lost. For this reason this digital system could not be implemented at that time.

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Reason for implementing the new system

According to CBSE, the main objective of fully implementing this digital system this year was to make the evaluation process more secure, efficient and uniform. The board believed that by checking the copies online, the difference in marks given by teachers of different areas can be reduced. With this, human or clerical errors in adding numbers can be completely eliminated. With this system, monitoring of teachers who check copies also becomes easier and the entire examination system becomes transparent and strong.

Global digital marking rules

Globally, major UK examination boards such as AQA, OCR and Pearson Edexcel, which conduct major examinations such as A-Levels, have been using online marking for many years. There also all the copies are scanned at the central level and distributed digitally among the examiners. In many cases, a teacher is not given the entire copy to mark, but instead marks only a particular question out of thousands of copies, which greatly increases the consistency and accuracy of scoring.

Debate between technology versus human intelligence

According to Britain’s examination regulator ‘Ofqual’, the main purpose of online marking was to increase quality control and strict monitoring of examiners. According to professors, the British examination system is different from Asian countries because long answers like essays have to be written there. Technology can only become a medium to easily reach teachers who check students’ answers, but it can never replace the teacher who evaluates students’ knowledge. Recently, Ofqual has also issued guidelines on the use of AI in examinations and has placed the right of final decision in the hands of humans.

What are the rules in international board?

The International Baccalaureate (IB) Board, whose examinations are conducted in more than 150 countries around the world, also relies heavily on digital assessment. Examiners from all over the world access the scanned copies online, while senior examiners continuously monitor the quality of the copies. It is clear from all these international examples that the job of technology is only to help human examiners, and not to conduct the evaluation itself. In India too, to make this system completely successful, it is very important to remove the technical flaws and mentally prepare the teachers.

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The debate has intensified across the country regarding CBSE’s new On Screen Marking System i.e. OSM. After the declaration of 12th results, lakhs of students and their parents are continuously raising questions. Some are complaining about getting less number while some are claiming to have got someone else’s copy. Many students even said that only a few pages of their answer sheets were missing. Amidst the growing controversy, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has now come forward and has openly supported this digital system.

The Education Minister said that OSM is a modern and transparent system, which is being adopted by many big institutions of the world. He admitted that due to its implementation for the first time, some problems have arisen, but the complaint of any student will not be ignored.

Actually, this time CBSE used the on-screen marking system on a large scale to check the answer sheets. In this, students’ copies are scanned and sent to the examiners in digital form and marks are given there. After the release of the results, a large number of students alleged that they had got much less marks than expected. After this, when the students downloaded their scanned copies, many new problems started emerging.

What did the students say?

Scanning of copies was not clean
Many pages appeared to be cut off.
Another student’s copy was visible
Marks were not given even after correct answers

#WATCH | OSM system secure and robust- CBSE@Chandans_live | https://t.co/smwhXUROiK#CBSE #OSM #DharmendraPradham #Meeting #ABPNews pic.twitter.com/GZvgikYv4v

— ABP News (@ABPNews) May 28, 2026

More than 4 lakh students asked for re-examination

According to CBSE, about 17 lakh students had appeared for the examination this year. The Education Minister said that a total of 98 lakh copies were examined and each copy had an average of 40 pages. That means approximately 40 crore pages were scanned. The biggest thing is that about 4 lakh students have applied for re-verification of their copies. About 11 lakh copies of these students are being reviewed again. After receiving such a large number of complaints, the pressure on both CBSE and the Education Ministry has increased.

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What did the Education Minister say?

Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan clearly said that OSM has been brought in the interest of students. According to him, this system is more transparent and gives students a chance to see their copies. He said that for the first time CBSE has implemented OSM on such a large scale. Some discrepancies have come to light and I take responsibility for it. But we will resolve every complaint. He also said that many universities and institutions of the country are now moving towards a similar digital testing system.

Many agencies are helping

Seeing the seriousness of the matter, CBSE has started taking help from many technical agencies. According to the Education Minister, the technology testing agencies of the Government of India are also monitoring this entire matter. The ministry says that if any technical mistake or negligence comes to light, strict action will be taken against it.

The board started this system

CBSE has started a 24-hour ‘Post-Result Support System’ to help the students. Through this facility released by the board, students can take help regarding results, copy checking, stress and other questions. For this, toll-free helpline number 1800-11-8004 has been fully activated. Apart from this, students can also contact the official emails of the board info.cbse@nic.in and result.cbse2026@cbseshiksha.in to get immediate assistance. CBSE says that efforts will be made to solve every problem of the students soon.

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The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has refuted the claims being spread on social media that its On Screen Marking (OSM) portal has been hacked. The Board has clarified that this claim is completely based on false and misleading information. Some media reports had also come out regarding this matter, after which CBSE has issued an official statement.

What was the whole matter?
A user on social media had claimed that CBSE’s On Screen Marking (OSM) portal, whose URL was stated to be cbse.onmarks.co.in, had been hacked on 26 February 2026. After this claim, this news spread rapidly on many platforms, causing confusion among students and parents.

CBSE official statement
CBSE has clarified that the URL being mentioned is not a part of the actual examination evaluation system. It is only a testing website, which is used for internal testing and system review. The Board clearly said that no actual evaluation data, student marks or any sensitive information is available on this testing portal. Therefore, any incident like hacking or data theft is not possible on this site.

Genuine OSM system completely secure
CBSE also clarified that the actual OSM system, which is used for evaluation of answer sheets, is completely secure. No incident of any kind of security flaw or cyber attack has been reported in this main system.

According to the board, strong cyber security protocols and monitoring systems have been implemented to safeguard the evaluation process, preventing any unauthorized access.

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CBSE has said that the original on-screen marking system used to evaluate the answer sheets is completely safe. No security problem of any kind has come to light in it. The board said that to keep the system safe, strong cyber security system and monitoring system has been implemented, so that any kind of unauthorized access can be prevented.

CBSE also said that this system has been designed to make the evaluation process more transparent and faster. It also includes a robust grievance resolution system, so that the problems of students and teachers can be resolved immediately.

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