The fee cuts come amid an outcry over CBSE's first full-scale rollout of the Online Scoring Mechanism for Class 12 examinations, with students, parents, and some teachers alleging unusually low marks, unchecked answers, and discrepancies between expected and awarded scores.
CBSE Revaluation Fee Cut
Amid concerns over low scores following the shift to the Online Scoring Mechanism (OSM), the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has sharply reduced charges for revaluation-related services, with scanned copies of answer sheets now available for Rs 100 instead of Rs 700.
Addressing a press conference on Sunday, Sanjay Kumar, Secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy, ministry of education, said the fee for verification of marks has also been reduced to Rs 100 from Rs 500, while charges for re-evaluation have been brought down to Rs 25 per question from Rs 100 earlier.
Students whose marks increase after re-evaluation will have their fees refunded, Kumar added.
"We will charge a fee of Rs 100 from any student who wishes to view their answer sheets and a separate fee of Rs 100 applies if they wish to have their papers validated. A fee of Rs 25 will apply for the re-checking of an answer to a specific question," Kumar said.
Key Points
- CBSE reduced fees for scanned answer sheets, verification of marks, and re-evaluation after widespread complaints over scores.
- Students can now access scanned answer sheets for ₹100 instead of the earlier fee of ₹700.
- CBSE said re-evaluation fees will be refunded if students receive increased marks after reassessment of answer sheets.
- Class 12 pass percentage dropped by 3.19 percentage points in 2026 following the nationwide rollout of OSM.
- Board officials admitted initial glitches in the online evaluation system but said technical issues were quickly resolved.
Online Scoring Mechanism Explained
The fee cuts come amid an outcry over CBSE's first full-scale rollout of the Online Scoring Mechanism for Class 12 examinations, with students, parents, and some teachers alleging unusually low marks, unchecked answers, and discrepancies between expected and awarded scores.
Class 12 Pass Percentage Falls
The CBSE Class XII overall pass percentage fell to 85.20 per cent in 2026 from 88.39 per cent in 2025, marking a decline of 3.19 percentage points year-on-year.
The drop came after three consecutive years in which Class XII results had remained broadly stable in the 87-89 per cent range.
CBSE Chairman Rahul Singh said the OSM format was first introduced in 2014 but could not be fully implemented at the time due to technological limitations.
The system, Singh said, has now been reintroduced following advances in digital infrastructure and wider adoption in higher education institutions.
"In 2014, the limitation was that the scanning infrastructure available in general in the country was of a kind that you couldn't scan the entire answer book in one go without actually cutting it open from the spine.
"After conducting the exam, we found that the answer sheets got mixed. Some answers of certain students got mixed with answer books of other students and we had faced lots of issues," said Singh.
Answer Sheet Scanning Issues
Current systems, Singh added, allow full answer booklets to be scanned without physically separating pages, eliminating the risk of mixing scripts.
"Now for the past five years and more, we have technologies available where the answer booklets can be scanned at one go without cutting the answer book open at the spine.
"So the issue of mixing up the books doesn't arise anymore," he said, adding that improved digital infrastructure in schools and the use of OSM in several universities have supported the system's reintroduction.
Singh also said the refund mechanism, which had earlier existed, was discontinued due to logistical challenges but has now been reinstated.
"Till 2019, the refund system was in place but it had been withdrawn as returning the fees to students' accounts used to be challenging due to logistical reasons such as students not using their accounts.
However, this time we will refund the fees in cases where the students' marks increase after the re-evaluation," he added.
Singh clarified that the fees are being charged to discourage misuse of the facility, but the entry barrier will be low since the fees have been cut.
The officials reiterated that the change to the OSM format has brought in standardisation and has made the marking system more transparent and objective.
However, Singh noted that initial challenges were faced in the system.
"So when teachers logged in initially, there were some glitches in the system.
"I should be the first to admit it -- the system was hanging when it was first operationalised," he said, adding that there were downloading issues as well, but they were resolved quickly.
CBSE said the OSM rollout involved scanning 98.66 lakh answer books and faced initial issues including static IP configuration problems, system overloads, teacher login errors, and delays in mapping marking schemes, which were later resolved.
The board said teachers were trained on the portal, 68,018 answer books were rescanned due to poor image quality, and some scripts were reassigned after language mismatches were identified.
It added that 13,583 answer books with persistently poor scan quality were eventually evaluated manually ahead of results to avoid further delays and student anxiety.
"Around 13,000 answer sheets were found to be illegible after multiple scans because of light-coloured ink. These answer sheets were then checked manually," said Kumar.
Student Complaints Over Low Marks
The developments come amid widespread student dissatisfaction on social media, with claims that high-performing candidates -- including those who cleared competitive examinations like JEE Main -- received unexpectedly low marks, while others alleged inconsistencies in marking that affected overall results.
Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff
© 2026