Are videos praising OSM promoting trust or hiding a larger narrative? Was CBSE’s digital assessment implemented ahead of time? Technology or trust failed? The real fight in the OSM controversy is not about marks, but about transparency, accountability and the future of millions of students.
New Delhi: The new digital evaluation system i.e. On-Screen Marking (OSM) of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has currently become a big mental stress for millions of students and their parents in the country. While on one hand there is widespread outcry over missing pages of answer sheets, serious errors in marks and flaws in scanning, on the other hand suddenly a completely opposite scene is visible on social media and online platforms. Videos of principals of influential schools of the country have suddenly started appearing, who are praising this system by calling it a “revolutionary reform”. This strange contradiction has now created a new and deep suspense as to who is creating this false story of success amidst this crisis and why?
The game behind the scenes: Who is getting the profits of the ‘success story’?
When students and their parents were running to offices for re-evaluation after the declaration of Class 12 results, then why was there a hurry in branding this digital system? Here are some surprising behind-the-scenes facts about this game of ‘narrative control’:
- CBSE’s security cover: It becomes very easy for the Board to defend any reform that is publicized as ‘successful’. Due to this the accountability of the system ends.
- The reputation of schools is at stake: Schools have invested their time, resources and reputation in adopting this system, so they are endorsing it to hide their failure.
- Hyderabad Tech Company’s Jackpot: The tender for this entire project was handed over on a platter to Hyderabad company ‘Coempt Edutech’. By praising the system, the questions being raised about the shortcomings on the ground in the company are suppressed.
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Scary truth: This system was not to be implemented before 2026!
The biggest and sensational revelation in this entire controversy has come from the statements of senior principals and educationists of Mumbai and Odisha. According to insiders, when this system was trialled for Class 9 during the Covid period, it failed miserably due to technical glitches and the board had shelved the idea.
“There was no plan to implement OSM for Class 12 before 2026,” said a senior principal from Odisha (Bhubaneswar) on condition of anonymity. The board forced it on this very sensitive examination cycle, without any adequate preparation and without giving proper training to the teachers.
Servers down and copies missing: Exam system suffocating under pressure
A teacher of DAV School had warned even before the results were declared that this year’s result was going to get stuck in a big technical quagmire. Teachers had to go through these terrifying experiences on a daily basis during evaluation:
- Frequent crashes of login and main server.
- It took hours for the scanned copies to load on the screen.
- Sudden shutdown of software during investigation and interruption in the work of evaluators.
Students’ pain: “Our results have become political weapons”
Swayam Mohanty, the victimized Class 12 student from Delhi, says he does not know whether any ‘narrative toolkit’ has been distributed to schools or not, but his questions have gone unheard and the consequences of his career have now become a political weapon. Parents believe that this publicity being done by the principals by making videos is a cheap PR stunt.
At this very critical juncture of career, admission and scholarship, this fight is no longer just about technical flaws, but it has directly become about the ‘trust deficit’ that has arisen between the country’s largest examination body and the public. Will CBSE correct its mistakes, or will the future of students remain at stake due to this digital propaganda? This question is still unanswered.