17-year-old Sarthak Sidhant, who probed CBSE's OSM system, appears before Parliament panel

AMid the row o'er CBSE's on-screen scoring portal, 17-year-old pupil Sarthak Sidhant appeared before a parliamentary venire on tues. As per reports, he was called to give a presentation before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth, and Sports.The committee reviewed the use of 'On-Screen Marking' (OSM) in Class 12 CBSE examinations, along with the problems and concerns flagged by students.Following his presentation, Congress MP Digvijaya Singh, who is chairing the panel, stated that the committee will now wait for a response from CBSE on the same."He (Sarthak Sidhant, one of the students affected by the CBSE’s On-Screen Marking (OSM) system) has made his presentation. It is for the committee to decide (on the replies given by the CBSE)," the Congress leader told ANI.The 17-year-old made headlines after he published his findings after reviewing tender documents on the Central Public Procurement portal. His findings alleged that the Central Board of Secondary Education "rewrote rules" to favour Coempt EduTeck.Sidhant alleged on his blog that the board modified eligibility and technical requirements across three tender rounds, all of which benefited Coempt EduTeck."There were at least 15 discrepancies, as per my blog. I would like to highlight three or four of them. Let me give a background about Coempt. It was known as Globarena, and they have a very shady background. 23 students killed themselves because of coempt," he told news agency ANI.Also Read | Govt seeks detailed report from CBSE on OSM tender amid row over Class 12 evaluationHe further added that the first discrepancy was the erasure of the poor performance clause."The first discrepancy is that there were three clauses of ‘poor performance’ which were completely wiped out from the new RFP. In the earlier RFP, there was a clause called ‘blacklisted earlier’ whereas in the new RFP, it was changed to ‘blacklisted currently’. Why would the board want a service provider which was blacklisted earlier?" he said.A Hindustan Times investigation also revealed the technical changes between the tender rounds.Sidhant's blog also grabbed the attention of the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, who has been vocal about the discrepancies in the process.“[Sidhant] has revealed the hollowness of (education minister) Dharmendra Pradhan ji’s denials. The PM remains silent, as usual. The question is simple: who are they protecting, and why? An independent judicial inquiry is now essential to uncover the full extent of this scam,” Gandhi wrote on X.