CBSE 12th Result 2026: The Central Board of Secondary Education has defended its On-Screen Marking (OSM) system after several Class 12 students raised concerns over lower-than-expected board exam scores.
CBSE Chairperson Rahul Singh said the board has only changed the mode of evaluation from physical copies to digital screens, while the marking scheme remains unchanged. "Evaluators earlier checked hard copies; this time they evaluated scanned answer sheets on screen. The marking scheme remains exactly the same," he said.
Under OSM, physical answer sheets are scanned and converted into digital copies for evaluation. Nearly 98 lakh answer sheets were scanned this year. CBSE clarified that the system is not new and was first introduced in 2014, but technological limitations had prevented full implementation earlier.
Students on social media alleged that digital checking led to stricter marking and lower scores. Some also linked it to a drop in pass percentage. However, CBSE denied any change in assessment standards and said no Artificial Intelligence (AI) was used in the evaluation process.
School Education Secretary Sanjay Kumar said the OSM system includes multiple quality and security checks, mandatory step-wise marking and automatic elimination of totalling errors. Around 13,000 illegible answer sheets were manually checked after repeated scanning attempts failed.
CBSE said nearly 3 lakh teachers, including 77,000 evaluators, were trained for the process. While initial technical glitches were reported, the board maintained that the system improves transparency and standardisation in evaluation.
The board has also reduced re-evaluation charges. Full verification and validation of answer books will now cost Rs. 100 each, while re-evaluation of individual questions will cost Rs. 25 per question.
CBSE has advised dissatisfied students to use the official re-evaluation mechanism beginning May 19.
