What is on-screen marking system at centre of row over CBSE Class 12 results?

AReinvigorated contestation has erupted o'er the exchange room of Secondary Education (CBSE)'s newly introduced on-screen marking (OSM) system to evaluate Class 12 board examination results for 2026. The exam results were declared on Wednesday, recording a huge drop in the overall pass percentage this year to 85.2%, a drop of 3.19 percentage points from last year and the lowest level seen in the past seven years.CBSE has defended the new method, saying it was brought in to improve "transparency, fairness, and consistency" in the assessment process. The ministry of education has also rejected concerns surrounding the marking process and said the system is secure and follows global practices used for transparent evaluation.ALSO READ | ‘Cannot change the system’: Opposition attacks CBSE's three-language mandate for class 9 and 10During a press conference, Sanjay Kumar, school education secretary, ministry of education, announced that charges for answer sheet verification and revaluation had been cut to ₹100 each. Now, the main question is: what exactly is this OSM system that has caused so much uproar among students?What is on-screen marking (OSM) system?CBSE moved away from the traditional method of checking papers and introduced digital evaluation for Class 12 through the on-screen marking system. Under this process, 98.6 lakh answer sheets were assessed without printing them or transporting physical papers to checking centres.As part of this system, answer sheets were scanned and uploaded to an online platform where teachers checked them on computer screens. Marks were entered digitally, and comments were made online, while the system automatically calculated totals to reduce the chances of mistakes. Through OSM, CBSE assessed 98,66,622 answer books.The process removes errors in totalling, posting, and uploading by ensuring that every answer is checked against the prescribed marking scheme, as reported by HT earlier.The board said this is its biggest digital assessment exercise so far and marks a major change from the conventional system used for years.It also said that lower human involvement reduces manual handling, which often leads to calculation errors. "Evaluators award marks only as per the marking scheme, assuring objective assessments," it said.What educators said on the systemSchool principals and teachers who spoke to HT after the results gave different reasons for the decline in pass percentage.The principal of a Delhi school, who requested anonymity, claimed the system was introduced too quickly and teachers did not receive enough training."Many teachers, particularly in government schools, were not sufficiently familiar with the technology. Ideally, OSM should have been implemented next year after wider preparation," the principal said.However, a Delhi government school teacher who took part in the Class 12 evaluation process said the new system lowered the chances of errors."The lower pass percentage has more to do with how students attempted the papers than with OSM itself. Students do not take board examinations seriously and hence perform poorly," the teacher said.What CBSE, ministry of education said on the systemResponding to concerns raised on social media, CBSE said on X that it had "observed" the issues being discussed.The board said the OSM system had been introduced to improve "transparency, fairness, and consistency" in assessment. It added that the process ensured step-by-step marking and automatically calculated totals, reducing human error.The board also confirmed that the re-evaluation facility would continue this year.Speaking at a press conference, Sanjay Kumar from the ministry of education said 98 lakh answer sheets for Class 12 had been scanned and that the process followed three levels of security. "It was found that despite repeated scanning, there were still some legibility issues because the ink used in some answer sheets was of a very light colour. Even after scanning, those scripts could not be made fully legible.”"In such cases, the examiners were instructed to evaluate the scripts manually and award marks accordingly. More than 13,000 such answer sheets were separately identified and manually checked. After manual evaluation, the marks obtained were entered into the system."Special attention was given to the security levels and related issues so that the marking carried out through on-screen evaluation remained accurate, completely transparent and fair," he added.CBSE controller of examinations Sanyam Bhardwaj, speaking to news agency ANI, said that "there is a possibility of error" during the evaluation process."The CBSE is an institution that works in the best interest of students, and we operate with complete transparency. We evaluate approximately 1.25 crore answer scripts. There is a possibility that an error may occur somewhere. To rectify such errors, we offer certain facilities to our students," he said.CBSE Class 12 resultsThe overall pass percentage this year stood at 85.20%, down 3.19 percentage points from last year's 88.39%.Girls once again performed better than boys, recording a pass percentage of 88.86%, compared to 82.13% among boys. The difference stood at 6.73 percentage points. In 2025, girls recorded 91.64%, while boys stood at 85.70%.A total of 94,028 students, or 5.32%, scored 90% and above, while 17,113 students, or 0.97%, secured 95% and above. The number of students placed in the compartment category also increased to 163,800, or 9.26%, compared to 129,095 students, or 7.63%, last year.With inputs from Rajeev Mullick, Sanjay Maurya and agencies