New Delhi: A fresh debate has erupted over the possibility of awarding grace marks to CBSE Class 12 students after complaints surfaced regarding technical issues in the board’s newly introduced On Screen Marking (OSM) evaluation system. The controversy has sparked concern among students, parents and education experts, with many questioning whether the evaluation process may have affected final scores.
The Central Board of Secondary Education introduced the OSM system for the first time during the 2026 evaluation process. Under this system, answer sheets were scanned and assessed digitally instead of being checked in the conventional manner. However, reports of technical glitches soon emerged, leading to allegations that some answers may not have been properly visible to examiners during evaluation.
According to students and teachers, several scanned answer sheets reportedly faced display related issues. Some pages did not open correctly, while parts of certain answers appeared incomplete on screen. Examiners also reportedly faced difficulty reading lengthy responses through the digital interface, raising concerns over the accuracy of marking.
Amid the growing controversy, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan acknowledged that there were shortcomings in the newly introduced system. Following discussions with CBSE officials, he admitted that technical challenges had caused inconvenience to students and evaluators.
The issue has now triggered a widespread demand for grace marks. Several students have claimed that they received lower scores than expected and argued that technical faults may have influenced their results. Social media platforms have witnessed calls for awarding an additional 15 to 20 marks to affected students as compensation.
Education experts, however, remain divided on the matter. Some believe that students who may have been impacted by technical errors deserve relief through grace marks. Others argue that granting additional marks across the board could compromise merit and raise questions about fairness in the evaluation process.
CBSE has meanwhile announced that its rechecking and verification portal will reopen from June 1, allowing students to seek a review of their answer sheets. The board is expected to examine complaints related to the evaluation process before taking any final decision on further relief measures.
This year, nearly 18 lakh students appeared for the Class 12 examinations, with around 98 lakh answer sheets and nearly 40 crore scanned pages processed through the OSM system. The outcome of the ongoing debate could therefore have significant implications for thousands of students awaiting clarity on their results and future academic opportunities.