Hacking claims, mismatched answer-sheets: Controversies rock school exam in India

Hacking claims, mismatched answer-sheets: Controversies rock school exam in IndiaJust nowShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleCherylann MollanGetty ImagesAround two million students appeared for the CBSE's school-leaving exam this yearWhat began as one student's viral complaint about a mismatch between the physical and digital copies of his Grade 12 physics answer sheet has snowballed into a major controversy around one of India's biggest and most important school-leaving exams.Days after the government-run Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) announced its Grade 12 - equivalent to UK's A level - results, dozens of students complained about errors in their marks allegedly linked to a newly-launched digital evaluation system used in the exam.Called On-Screen Marking (OSM), the system works by scanning physical copies of answer-sheets and uploading them on an online portal for teachers to evaluate. A software then calculates total marks in each exam. According to the education board, the system was introduced to reduce human error and effort and to increase transparency and efficiency.While students often reported errors in manual evaluation, they say the new system has caused new problems instead of fixing old ones. Some say the scanned copies of answer sheets were blurry, which may have affected marks. Others say pages were missing, answers were marked wrongly, or the digital copies did not match the original paper answer sheets.CBSE has responded to the allegations by saying that it remained committed to a "fair and transparent evaluation process". "All genuine concerns related to scanned answer books or evaluation will be reviewed by subject experts through the prescribed mechanism," it said.The students' complaints have sparked national outrage and brought the education board's digital evaluation system under the scanner. Parents and educationists have questioned whether teachers received enough training and...