The Central Board of Secondary Education announced the Class 12 board results on May 13, recording an overall pass percentage of 85.20 per cent. This year, only 94,028 (5.32%) candidates have scored 90 per cent and above. With the JEE Advanced scheduled on May 17, 2026, students have raised their concern regarding the On Screen Marking (OSM) system used to evaluate the CBSE Class 12 board results 2026.
The board introduced the OSM last year, a digital evaluation process to eliminate totalling, posting, and uploading errors. The CBSE has stated that the online process ensures accuracy, fairness, transparency, efficiency, and students' confidence.
Conversations with CBSE students have revealed their grievances. "After clearing JEE Main, I should have been focused on JEE Advanced preparation. Instead, I am now worried whether I will even qualify for IIT admission because my board percentage is below 75," says Subh Jajoria, a Class 12 student from Delhi.
Subh has secured 70 per cent in the CBSE Class 12 board examinations this year, five percent below the minimum eligibility criteria required for admission to IITs and NITs. What shocked him the most was his Physics score. "I was expecting more than 85 marks in Physics, but I got only 55. My parents, teachers, everyone was surprised after seeing the result," he said.
Subh has expressed that he believes something went wrong this year with the evaluation process. He and his parents have now applied for re-evaluation of his answer sheets.
According to reports, the concern among students is not just about low marks; it is about a sudden shift in the way answer sheets were checked. Students and educators have taken to social media platforms alleging that the transition was implemented without adequate preparation and may have impacted marking patterns, particularly in Physics, Chemistry, and Biology.
Subh balanced regular school with coaching for the Joint Entrance Examination. His parents and teachers claim that the students were never informed about any change in the marking scheme or the evaluation style before the exams.
"If the marking pattern was changing, students should have been informed earlier. Many competitive exam aspirants are trained to write direct answers quickly. Suddenly changing the evaluation method after exams is unfair," his father said. NDTV spoke to several students who shared similar concerns.
Farim, a student preparing for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), says her Chemistry marks were much lower than expected. "I was confident about my paper. The result was shocking for me and my family," she says while filling out the re-evaluation form.
Another student, Mehak, who consistently scored above 90 per cent in school examinations and secured 93 percent in Class 10, received 86 percent in her Class 12 board exams. "I was not expecting this result at all. Preparing for NEET, CUET, and boards together was already stressful. After the result, it became emotionally exhausting," she said.
The concerns are not limited to students alone. Sanjeev Jha, a teacher who has been evaluating CBSE answer sheets for the last 17 years, says this is the first time he has witnessed such widespread complaints over unexpectedly low scores.
According to him, teachers were informed about the On-Screen Marking system barely a month before evaluation began. "We received online training shortly before copy checking started. Such a major system should not have been implemented in haste," he said.
Jha explains that technical issues during scanning may also have affected the evaluation process. "In some cases, scanned pages were unclear or difficult to read. Sometimes punctuation marks like commas and full stops were not recognised properly, causing entire lines to appear merged together on screen," he says.
He further explains that the digital system follows a strict step-by-step marking format, which may have disadvantaged students preparing for competitive exams.
"In entrance exams like JEE and NEET, students are trained to write direct answers because speed matters there. But CBSE's digital evaluation system gives marks step-wise. If students skipped intermediate steps, marks were deducted," he says.
According to him, CBSE should have informed both schools and students about the change in evaluation style much earlier so students could adapt their answer-writing pattern accordingly.
With re-evaluation applications rising, students and parents are now demanding transparency from the Central Board of Secondary Education over the sudden rollout of the digital evaluation and its possible impact on marks.
For students like Subh, the issue is bigger than just one result. "A difference of five percent can decide someone's future," he said.
NDTV reached out to CBSE seeking a detailed response on the concerns raised by the students and teachers. However, no official response has been received at the time of publishing this report.