A fresh controversy has erupted over the Central Board of Secondary Education’s (CBSE) rollout of its On-Screen Marking (OSM) system, with regional officers allegedly reaching out to school principals and students to amplify positive messaging amid growing criticism over technical glitches and evaluation concerns.
Sources confirmed to Times Now that CBSE regional officers have been nudging principals of affiliated schools to publicly defend the digital evaluation system and reassure students following widespread backlash after the Class 10 and 12 results.
Times Now has accessed internal talking points allegedly shared with school principals as part of the outreach exercise. The document asks principals to record videos stating that “CBSE has been highly proactive, empathetic, and communicative regarding teething issues of blurred pages, illegible scans, or technical glitches on the post-result portal.”
The document further describes OSM as a major reform that “completely eliminates human clerical errors, such as calculation slips or posting mistakes, which used to plague traditional physical marking.”
Principals have also reportedly been encouraged to explain how the system “frees up evaluators to focus strictly on content rather than arithmetic, paving the way for a more standardized, transparent, and eco-friendly evaluation process aligned with the National Education Policy.”
According to sources, regional officers have additionally asked schools to tell students that they should “embrace these digital advancements with patience” and that “OSM fundamentally improves the structural integrity of assessments.”
The outreach also reportedly includes messaging around the revaluation mechanism. Principals have allegedly been asked to describe the revaluation portal as students’ “official safety net” and reassure them that “no child will be allowed to suffer due to a technical error.”
However, the campaign has now triggered criticism online, with students pointing out that multiple school principals appeared to be reading out nearly identical statements in support of OSM.
The controversy intensified after Jaipur’s PM Shri School shared videos on X featuring a student and faculty member praising the system. In the video, the student repeatedly says that his marking experience was “fair, transparent and in-line with his expectations,” while the teacher claims OSM ensures “error-proof marking” with “clear scans” and “faster checking.”
The post has now been deleted.
The issue has now drawn political attention as well. Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal criticised CBSE’s outreach, accusing the board of deflecting attention from students’ concerns.
“Rather than accepting the problem and correcting it, they are using kids to justify their rotten system. They are hell bent upon ruining the future of our kids. Can u still keep quiet?” he said in a post reacting to the controversy.
The latest row comes at a time when CBSE’s OSM rollout is already facing scrutiny over allegations of blurred answer sheet scans, mismatched marks, incomplete evaluations, and technical glitches reported by students across several schools.