It’s CBSE Now

Another digitised exam process brings grief. Why is change rolled out without stress-testing systems?

Onscreen marking, offscreen trauma. Several Class 12 students, teenagers all, have exposed more than just the botch-up of mismatched answer sheets. This year, CBSE adopted an onscreen marking system. This entailed that paper-pen answer sheets were scanned; examiners marked digitised answer sheets. Once results were out last week, many complained of unusually low marks, totally unexpected given their own measure of their performance. As part of the re-evaluation application, CBSE uploaded applicants’ answer sheets of subjects in which re-evaluation is sought. Only for some kids to make the shocking discovery that answer sheets marked and uploaded in their name, weren’t theirs at all.

The plight of the kids, most of whom have slaved for months for the all-important Class 12 Boards, is hard to imagine. Such mismatches must also necessarily mean that there are students out there whose marksheets read better than their actual test scores. The future of all these school-leaving youngsters rests on these marks, and some, for college admission. What a mess. As if NTA’s paper leaks and chaotic CUET weren’t traumatic enough…One of the teens flagged the mismatch on social media to get CBSE’s attention. For this, he suffered vicious trolling, where no apology is forthcoming. CBSE has conceded the “mix-up”. It has corrected “errors”. But that’s beside the point. Post-mortems don’t bring back the dead – in this case, trust in their new process. How many such mix-ups have gone unnoticed, where a decimal point can decide a college admission?

The bigger concern is the real tangle exposed – what is this strange obsession by India’s exam bodies to hurry the rollout of digitised/online testing infra, riddled with errors and glaring lapses? Examiners complained of blurred answer sheets, difficult to mark. Portal logins malfunctioned. Re-evaluation payment page redirected, or was on loop. This latest bungle – mismatch of papers – lays waste to CBSE promises of transparency & fairness from onscreen marking. If CBSE cannot guarantee children will receive correct marks, and not as a matter of luck, it should not have implemented onscreen marking this year. Pilots, more pilots and foolproof secure infra, unhackable, are key for successful digital transition. Just how many re-evaluations is CBSE prepared for?