Jalaj boarded a train from Vidisha at 1 pm on May 26 with his friend and his father. They were travelling 60 kilometres to the CBSE Regional Office in Bhopal. He had no other choice.

When his Class 12 results came out on May 13, he was dissatisfied with his score. He applied for a scanned copy of his evaluated answer sheet through CBSE’s reevaluation process. The portal opened on May 19, and after attempting to register several times, he finally succeeded at 1 am on May 21. But when the copy arrived on May 24, it wasn’t his. The front page had his name, but the answers inside belonged to someone else.

He emailed CBSE and called their helpline. No one responded. So he got on a train.

At the regional office, staff searched for an hour before locating his file. They assured him that his result would be updated within three to four days. Jalaj is still waiting.

His parents told Newslaundry, “They can't experiment on a student's future.”

A new system, little warning

This year, for the first time, CBSE evaluated Class 12 answer sheets through On-Screen Marking (OSM). Under this system, physical answer sheets are scanned, uploaded to a portal, and evaluated digitally by teachers. The OSM system was approved by the CBSE Governing Body, its highest decision-making authority, last year.

According to a report in The Indian Express, members were told at a June 2025 meeting that digital evaluation would reduce errors, examination protocols would be strengthened and that “imparity in region-wise evaluation of answer books will be taken care of.”

However, according to the minutes of the meeting accessed by the publication, members “suggested that the on-screen marking may be implemented in all subjects only after completion of pilot projects in some subjects across the various Regional Offices of the Board.” These pilot projects never happened.

Instead, a two-day exercise in January 2026 with 100 teachers across five Delhi schools was the extent of hands-on training before the rollout, according to a Hindustan Times report. Teachers who participated in this exercise told the publication that they had urged CBSE not to proceed, flagging the need for better features, more training, and adequate time to adapt.

CBSE announced the OSM rollout on February 9, a little over a week before Class 12 examinations began on........

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