New Delhi: A Class 12 student has alleged that CBSE exchanged his physics answer sheet. After scoring unexpectedly low marks on the paper, he applied for rechecking. But the answer sheet sent to him left him shocked.
“The physics answer sheet sent by CBSE is not my answer sheet at all. I know this is not my handwriting and it did not have the questions I attempted. Not just me — my family, teachers, and everyone who knows my writing immediately noticed the difference,” he wrote on X. The post went viral, receiving more than 50,000 likes and 13,000 reposts.
Many people called his claim fake and alleged that this was not an Indian account, as the location was showing the South Asia region. DD News anchor Ashok Shrivastava also called him “Pakistani”. However, CBSE soon responded, according to the student.
“We had applied for English, Computer Science and Maths just to see where the marks were cut. We matched the handwriting and style of the Physics answer sheet. We had no reason to think that the entire answer sheet itself was different. We had emailed the issue to the authorities. CBSE never had these issues before. They have brought OSM directly. It should have been introduced in phases,” said Vedant’s brother.
Just a day after CBSE acknowledged the issue, the board returned the student’s original answer sheet.
“We have got my correct answer sheet from CBSE. CBSE officials reached out to us in the evening and sent my answer sheet. We were correct in our claims and the answer sheet had indeed got exchanged,” Vedant wrote in a subsequent post. The student added that he was expecting more than 90 marks but got half the marks.
“My performance in the exam was good. I was expecting a score of more than 90. But I got nearly half the marks. I was shocked after seeing the result. I had topped every class throughout. There is clearly an error on CBSE’s part,” said Vedant in a TV news interview.
Also read: UPSC aspirants in shock after prelims paper—lengthy and vague questions
OSM evaluation errors
From this year, CBSE has introduced an On-Screen Marking (OSM) process for evaluating answer sheets. After the results were declared, students and parents continuously raised concerns over their authenticity. Many have applied to have their papers rechecked. Initially, CBSE dismissed the concerns, but recently Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said he would direct CBSE to address the glitches.
“Student interests remain paramount, and all corrective measures must be undertaken by CBSE on priority to ensure a transparent, efficient and student-friendly system,” said Pradhan.
He also directed CBSE to urgently address glitches in the post-result process and strengthen its digital infrastructure with the help of IIT experts and public sector banks.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)