New Delhi, May 30 (H.S.): Congress General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh has raised concerns over the On-Screen Marking (OSM) system introduced for the Central Board of Secondary Education Class 12 Board Examinations, alleging that the system was implemented in haste and has created confusion among students and parents.
In a post on social media, Ramesh claimed that several shortcomings had come to light through an assessment conducted by Class 12 student Sarthak Siddhant and another independent review. He questioned why the CBSE decided to implement the OSM system only 74 days before the examinations, despite pilot testing reportedly identifying 36 technical and evaluation-related concerns.
He further alleged that changes were made to the tender process that effectively granted exemptions to blacklisted companies. Ramesh questioned whether these modifications were designed to benefit a particular company. According to him, the tender conditions stipulated a minimum annual turnover of Rs.50 crore, a requirement that allegedly limited eligibility to a specific firm.
The Congress leader also stated that the tender criteria were revised multiple times. These changes allegedly included reducing the required Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) certification level from Level 5 to Level 3, giving preference to contractors with experience in smaller contracts rather than those with experience managing large student populations, and favoring vendors using data centres approved by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology over those maintaining their own data centres.
Ramesh argued that these repeated alterations indicate significant deficiencies in both the planning and implementation of the CBSE’s OSM initiative.
He called for a thorough investigation into the matter, stating that an inquiry was necessary to address the concerns of students and parents and to ensure transparency in the examination evaluation process.
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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar
