According to sources, CBSE ignored views from its own governing body members on conducting pilot projects across regional offices before changing the evaluation system for Class 12 board exam this year. There are 22 regional offices of the board across the country, none of which reported the pilot program.
A source in the know revealed the board instead conducted only a two-day exercise involving only 100 teachers at five Delhi schools in January. It added that the board was advised no to proceed with the roll out citing the need for better features, more training and time to adapt to the system.
The new evaluation system OSM has been under the scanner since the Class 12 results were declared. Evaluators claim OSM as a completely alien workflow that produced shoddy answer script scans and recorded marks incorrectly as many parents complained about answer sheet goof up.
Sources revealed a meeting was held in June 2025, in which, members had suggested OSM “may be implemented in all subjects only after completion of pilot projects in some subjects across various regional offices of the board”.
Teachers involved in the meeting claimed to have warned CBSE the system needed more refinement. “We told officials that OSM required at least a year or two of proper training before rollout. During evaluation from March 7 onwards, many teachers were unfamiliar with the software and effectively learnt while evaluating live answer scripts,” said a teacher from a Delhi school who participated in both the dry run and the live evaluation.
The marking system was revamped this year. CBSE formally announced the implementation of OSM on February 9, just a week before Class 12 examinations began on February 17. Demonstrations, webinars and mock evaluations were conducted by the board- which the school principals and evaluators tagged as -formalities rather than training for a major shift in the marking system. A nationwide webinar was held on February 13 and a training portal was opened on February 15 toallows evaluators to practice on previous years answer books. According to officials, nearly 300,000 teachers logged into the training portal while 77,000 eventually carried out the evaluation.
Another teacher- a participant of the meeting revealed they were under pressure from the board to complete checking the results quickly so that the results could be declared on time. “Teachers had daily targets. Speed mattered more than careful reading,” said a private school principal.
A physics teacher said, “The constraints of screen-based evaluation compounded the problem, evaluators said. “In manual checking, you can flip pages, revisit answers and catch missed steps. On screen, answers can be overlooked easily.”
“Some evaluators were still figuring out the software while checking live answer books. With physical copies, unusual handwriting or answers written in corners are easier to notice. Digitally, they can be missed,” said another math teacher.
The CBSE on the contrary is reported to have ignored the query on region wise dry instead referred to press conference, nationwide webinar and training as an answer. Despite the ongoing controversy, CBSE confirmed that OSM would continue for next year’s board examinations.
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