Students raise fresh concerns over CBSE OSM system, claim answer sheet mismatch

CBSE has taken up cases of alleged answer-sheet mismatch in the re-evaluation process on "top priority" after students raised concerns over discrepancies in the On Screen Marking (OSM) system.

Amid growing complaints over glitches and discrepancies in the CBSE re-evaluation process, some Class 12 students have alleged that the scanned copies of their answer sheets uploaded by the board did not match their handwriting, raising concerns over possible answer-sheet mismatch in the On Screen Marking (OSM) system.

The CBSE has taken up on ''top priority'' the cases related to alleged mismatched answer sheets and other concerns faced by students in the re-evaluation process, a source in the board said.

The assurances came after a social media post of a Delhi-based Class 12 student, Vedant, went viral in which he alleged that the Physics answer sheet uploaded by the CBSE under the re-evaluation process was not his.

Several other students also took to social media with similar claims.

''Whatever complaints are coming, online or offline, by any means, CBSE is actively taking them up,'' the source said while asserting that the board remains committed to helping the students.

They said senior officials are continuously engaging with students and parents to resolve their grievances and are ''providing all possible support to students''.

''It is not about a single child. Everyone whose request is coming is being attended to actively,'' the source said in reply to queries to Vedant's complaint.

Referring to complaints raised by other students as well, the sources said, ''Not only one student, but all such matters are being examined seriously. In some cases, the issues have also been resolved.''.

Vedant's post, which garnered over 2.5 million views on X, said he and his family discovered that the handwriting in the Physics answer sheet provided by CBSE did not match his own.

Some reports on social media claimed that CBSE has shared Vedant's correct Physics answer book with him and informed the student that his result would be updated based on revised marks.

Screenshots circulating online purportedly showed an email sent on May 25 at 5:31 pm with the subject line ''Physics Answer Book'' from a senior CBSE official acknowledging the issue. ''Please find attached your correct answer book for Physics. Your result will be updated based on the new marks of Physics shortly,'' the email read. However, the CBSE did not officially confirm these developments.

Several social media users, however, initially trolled Vedant, questioning whether the newly-created handle was actually of a CSBE student, with some even calling him ''anti-national'' and ''Pakistani'', but others, including opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, came to his defence.

''After receiving unexpectedly low marks in Physics, we applied for photocopies of my answer sheets through the CBSE re-evaluation process. Today we received the copies. And I am shattered because the Physics answer sheet uploaded by CBSE is not mine,'' the student wrote on X.

He claimed the Physics answer sheet differed completely from his English and Computer Science answer sheets, as well as from his handwritten notes.

''The handwriting style, letter formation, spacing, slant, sentence flow '” everything is different. This is not a minor variation. It is completely different writing,'' he said.

Vedant further alleged that the Physics answer sheet ''looks like it belongs to another student entirely'' and questioned whether his actual paper had been evaluated.

''If this is true, then what exactly was evaluated under my roll number? My paper? Or someone else's?'' he wrote, adding that this is no longer just a ''rechecking'' issue.

The student urged CBSE to verify his original physical answer sheet, audit the OSM tagging and scanning process, investigate possible exchange of answer sheets, and ensure that the correct paper was evaluated.

Responding to criticism on social media, Vedant's brother Siddhant Srivastava said the family had created the X account to raise the issue publicly.

''I am the brother of Vedant and I am appalled by seeing how people are calling us Pakistani. Yes, Vedant did not have Twitter because he was busy studying instead of tweeting, and we made this account for tweeting his genuine issues because we could not apply for reevaluation,'' Srivastava said.

Meanwhile, another Class 12 student, Sanjana, also alleged on social media that the Chemistry answer sheet uploaded during the revaluation process did not match her handwriting.

''I applied for CBSE revaluation. The scanned copy of my chemistry sheet I received does not match my handwriting or written responses,'' she wrote.

Sanjana said she was ''shocked'' to see that she had scored 11 out of 70 in Chemistry theory despite expecting much higher marks.

''I first thought the scanned copy might be blurry, but it does not match my answer sheet at all; every page appears to be someone else's writing. The handwriting is not even comparable,'' she said.

According to the student, while the first page of the answer booklet carrying her personal details appeared to be hers, the internal pages did not match her handwriting.

''Not a single page inside appears to be mine,'' she alleged, adding that she had emailed CBSE and was trying to contact officials through helpline numbers but had not been able to reach them over calls.

Several other students also raised similar issues.

The allegations come amid complaints related to CBSE's post-result verification and re-evaluation process, including blurry scans, alleged missing pages and discrepancies in marks.

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has said that technical experts from IIT-Madras and IIT-Kanpur will examine all technical issues reported since the rollout of this year's post-examination re-evaluation services and assist the CBSE in ensuring a glitch-free process.