CBSE Relaxed Key Norms Before Rolling Out On-Screen Marking System for Class 12 Exams: Report

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) reportedly floated three separate tenders for its controversial On-Screen Marking (OSM) system before finally selecting a vendor for the nationwide rollout in the 2026 Class 12 board examinations.

According to a report by The Hindustan Times, the first tender received no bids, while the second failed to produce a technically eligible bidder. The board eventually modified several technical requirements in a third tender issued in August 2025 — just six months before the OSM system was implemented at national scale.

A senior CBSE official told The Hindustan Times that shortcomings and operational issues identified in the first two rounds were corrected in the third Request for Proposal (RFP) to ensure successful participation.

Technical Requirements Relaxed Before Final Tender

Internal committee minutes reviewed in the report showed that companies TCS and Coempt cleared the technical round in the final tender, with Coempt emerging as the successful bidder after financial evaluation.

It also stated that several important technical standards were relaxed between the earlier failed tenders and the final August RFP.

The minimum scanning resolution requirement was reportedly reduced from “300 DPI and above” to “minimum 200 DPI with clearly readable content.” The August tender also removed the earlier requirement mandating “automated or robotic high-speed scanning infrastructure”.

Additionally, the mandatory Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) certification requirement was lowered from Level 5 to Level 3, widening the pool of eligible bidders.

A CBSE official said that the scanning quality of 200 DPI was considered sufficient to ensure legible copies.

Warning Against Early Rollout

Teachers who participated in a two-day dry run in January had reportedly warned the board that the OSM system required at least one or two more years of preparation before nationwide implementation, The Hindustan Times reported earlier.

CBSE officials did not respond to questions regarding why the board moved ahead with the rollout despite these concerns.

Millions of Answer Sheets Processed

The scale of the exercise was unprecedented. According to officials, over 98 lakh answer books — amounting to nearly 1.96 crore scanned pages — were digitally evaluated this year.

The report stated that 68,018 answer books had to be rescanned due to poor image quality, while 13,583 answer books were manually checked after repeated scanning attempts failed to produce readable copies.

A Physics evaluator from Delhi told The Hindustan Times that nearly 100 out of around 760 scanned Physics answer books received for evaluation had to be rejected because they were blurred, partially scanned or had missing pages.

CBSE Yet To Release Vendor Payments

CBSE officials said no payment had yet been released to Coempt and that penalties, if applicable, would be reviewed after the completion of the re-evaluation process and supplementary examinations.

The controversy over the OSM system has intensified in recent weeks after students and parents reported blurred answer sheets, alleged answer-book mismatches, login failures and portal crashes during the re-evaluation process.