IIT Kanpur, Madras teams to assist CBSE for ‘glitch-free’ re-evaluation process

UNion training government minister Dharmendra Pradhan directed the telephone exchange room of Secondary breeding (CBSE) to depute a team of professors and technical experts from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras and IIT Kanpur to assist the national-board in “ensuring a glitch-free re-evaluation process,” officials said on Sunday.Pradhan’s directions came in view of the recent developments and concerns raised by students and parents regarding the CBSE post-result services portal, officials said.“The decision has been taken following reports of technical challenges in the post examination services portal of CBSE,” the Union education ministry said in a statement on Sunday.It said that IIT Madras will implement focused technological improvements of the systems and technical workflows and will specifically examine portal stability and server performance. “The team will also examine the overall IT Infrastructure robustness and assist in taking corrective measures to ensure that login authentication/ user access systems/ payment gateways are accurate and in order,” it said.CBSE conducted Class 12 board examinations from February 17 to April 10 and announced the results on May 13 – which showed board’s overall Class 12 pass percentage fell 3.19 percentage points to 85.20%, down from 88.39% last year, marking the lowest since 2019, when the pass percentage stood at 83.40%.The decline came in the first year of CBSE’s full-fledged on-screen marking (OSM) for evaluating Class 12 answer sheets.Under OSM, answer scripts were scanned and uploaded to a secure digital portal where teachers assessed them on computer screens, entered marks digitally and annotated responses online, while totals were auto-calculated to eliminate human error.CBSE evaluated 9,866,622 answer books digitally, while 13,583 copies were checked manually because repeated scanning failed to produce legible images.On May 17, CBSE sharply reduced its post-result re-evaluation charges and promised full refunds if marks increase after review.Also Read:CBSE Revaluation 2026 Class 12: Applications to receive evaluated answer sheets copy begin today at cbse.gov.inUnder the revised structure, the fee for obtaining a scanned copy of an evaluated answer sheet is slashed to ₹100 from ₹700 per subject, while the charge for verification of marks, which checks clerical errors such as totalling and unchecked responses, was reduced to ₹100 from ₹500. The fee for re-evaluating specific questions has been cut to ₹25 from ₹100 per question.CBSE started accepting applications from students to obtain answer scripts on May 19.On May 19, it first extended the last date for applying from May 22 to May 23 and on May 22, it extended the deadline to May 24.CBSE received 2.94 lakh applications for answer books so far for over 8.56 lakh answer books.Last year, the number was significantly lower at 1.31 lakh applications for 2.82 lakh answer books.Over 15.07 lakh out of 17.66 lakh students have cleared Class 12 exam this year, compared to 14.96 lakh out of 16.92 lakh in 2025.Ever since CBSE re-evaluation portal went live on May 19, a large number of CBSE students and parents across India reported technical failures, blurry scanned answer sheets, payment issues, and concerns surrounding evaluation transparency.A student from a private Delhi school, who topped her school in Class 10 with 97.4% but scored 93% in Class 12 against an expected 95%, said she applied for scanned copies of all six answer scripts on May 21 and completed the payment, but is yet to receive them.“How am I supposed to raise objections by the May 24 deadline when I can’t even access my answer scripts?” she said, noting that CBSE will begin re-evaluation based on objections from May 26.She said the portal kept crashing through the day, forcing her to apply around 2.45am when traffic was lower.“Many of us are staying awake late or waking up early just to access the site. This is happening while we are also appearing for CUET-UG, and constantly checking the website is affecting our focus and preparation,” she said.The National Testing Agency (NTA) is conducting the Common University Entrance Test-Undergraduate (CUET-UG) 2026 from May 11 to May 31.Another student Sarthak Sidhant said he missed the 75% eligibility cutoff for Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA) by a fraction of a percentage point, despite expecting his Class 12 score to be in the 87–88% range.JoSAA is the central body that manages counselling and seat allocation for admissions to premier engineering institutes in India based mainly on ranks in JEE Advanced (for IITs) and JEE Main (for NITs/IIITs/GFTIs).He applied for scanned copies of answer scripts for all subjects, saying he expected better marks across the board, but is yet to receive them.Sarthak said he could not access CBSE’s portal on May 19 through the original link shared by the board.“On May 20, after being redirected to a new portal, I again faced maintenance downtime and heavy traffic. I finally managed to apply at 6am on May 21, but even then faced payment glitches. The payment went through, but the site showed it had failed. It was reflected only 12 hours later after I was asked to wait 24 hours,” he said.The principal of a private school in Delhi blamed the OSM system for the problems faced by students.“First CBSE awarded low marks to students due to improper checking of answer copies under the new system. Now students seeking re-evaluation of Class 12 answer sheets in the hope of improving marks are facing technical glitches, payment failures, blurred or incomplete scanned copies, and repeated portal crashes while applying. They have not trained teachers for the new system and applied in a hurry and now we are witnessing chaos unleashed by the OSM system.”CBSE officially announced full-scale OSM for evaluation of Class 12 on May 9, just a week before the board examinations 2026.On May 17, at a press conference, Sanjay Kumar, secretary, department of school education and literacy (DoSEL) said that it was “neither a novel concept nor the first time it has been implemented”.CBSE first piloted the system in 2014, evaluating major Class 10 subjects across most regions and only two Class 12 subjects—English core and economics—in the Delhi region. The initiative was later scaled back because of infrastructure and connectivity limitations before being revived this year after technological and software upgrades and large-scale teacher training.Kumar said that the OSM system introduced flexibility and objectivity by allowing answer scripts from one region to be evaluated elsewhere, unlike the earlier region-bound manual checking system.According to CBSE chairperson Rahul Singh, nearly 3 lakh teachers logged into the CBSE portal for OSM training, while 77,000 teachers participated in evaluation.“Only teachers evaluated each copy in the OSM and no AI was used in the evaluation of answer scripts,” Singh said.CBSE in a May 17 statement said OSM ensured “greater standardisation, accuracy, confidentiality, and expeditious processing of evaluation-related activities.”