'Education Minister Must Resign'

'The software vendor had a black mark against him and yet they went ahead with him. Why was this company shortlisted? Who is responsible for signing off this software?'

India's education system has once again come under scrutiny following reports of serious irregularities in the CBSE evaluation process and fresh allegations of a NEET paper leak.

While lakhs of students anxiously await exam results and prepare for competitive examinations, questions are being raised about whether the authorities are prioritising speed and experimentation over accountability and preparedness.

The controversy surrounding the CBSE's shift to a fully digital evaluation system has triggered widespread criticism after reports of technical glitches, mismatched answer sheets and confusion among evaluators.

At the same time, recurring allegations of leaks and operational lapses in the conduct of NEET have reignited concerns over the credibility of one of the country's most important entrance examinations.

Dr Deepessh Divakaran, founder and CEO of CareerNest and a serial entrepreneur, believes that both controversies reflect a troubling pattern of inadequate due diligence, weak oversight and a lack of accountability within educational institutions.

In this interview with Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff, Dr Divakaran questions the decision-making behind CBSE's digital evaluation project, raises concerns over the selection of vendors entrusted with handling millions of answer sheets, and discusses why recurring examination controversies continue to surface despite repeated warnings.

How did this goof-up in the CBSE exam papers happen and what was done wrong?

CBSE decided to go through a complete digital system. This proposal was there for a long time but this year they started implementing it. And for this the government had issued a tender out of which two companies were shortlisted.

One was Tata Consultancy Services and the second one was Coempt EduTeck Private Limited. No one had heard about the second company.

And if you see the scale of the CBSE, like 18.5 lakh (1.85 million) Class 12 students give the examination. There are 70,000 plus teachers who are evaluators. Approximately 98 lakh (9.8 million) answer booklets are there, which is approximately 40 crore (400 million) pages.

What was the project?

The project was to scan these pages and do onscreen marking. That is what OSM (On-Screen Marking) is all about. Now the contract was given to Coempt EduTeck Private Limited instead of TCS.

What was the reason the project didn't go to TCS? Were TCS not competitive in their cost bid?

If you look at the tender (bid) you get to know that probably TCS was costly and Coempt EduTeck was not so costly so the project went to them.

When you dig down to get information about Coempt EduTeck you find that this company had changed its name only six months back. Before that the company's name was Globarena Technology. This company was founded in 2000 and they had a big disaster in the Telangana examination.

Which year?

This was in 2019 when 23 students committed suicide due to flawed results (external link). And even after that disaster this company was never blacklisted.

The same company later changed their name to Coempt EduTeck. They still got the CBSE contract this year.

If you do a little search you will find that this company has only 51 to 80 employees. And look at the scale of the CBSE exam papers. You've got to scan 40 crore pages and upload it on a server. And this company is managed by only 80 people.

I don't know the right number as to how many people are employed by this company but this is the figure it showed me when I did a search for this company.

They also had a case of cheating filed by Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University-Kakinada (JNTU-K) (external link) in Andhra Pradesh (2010).

(A cheating case and criminal breach of trust case against Globe Arena over a Rs 20 crore contract to automate the university's examination systems and to provide e-content.
In its FIR, JNTU-K accused Globe Arena of substandard services, below average content, and not paying service tax [external link]).

So, the question is, how can a small company get such a huge contract of CBSE, that too which has a not so good record (external link) in the past? And by giving them the contract this has affected the life of 18.5 lakh CBSE students.

Another thing, the software of this company was hacked by a person within 30 minutes, this hacker was even interviewed by a news channel.

What should the government have done prior to awarding the contract to this company?

When you buy any software you do due diligence before going live, which didn't happen in this case. The software was bought by the government and within six months they went live without any check. They have all the machinery to check and cross check.

70,000 (evaluators) were supposed to log in the system but no such check was conducted before the software went live.

You mean the evaluators who were going to check the CBSE exam papers were not given any practice before they got this system in their hand?

Exactly. You buy software you give a signoff, isn't it? And the question that I have is, no one tested this software before it was launched? They just went live.

Out of 70,000 answer books, 15,000 shifted back to physical examination because of the chaos. And when students wanted to evaluate their own answer papers they got someone else's photocopies. Their handwriting did not match the answers that were uploaded in their names.

What should the government have done to avoid this fiasco?

The government should not have gone live with this software immediately. They should have chosen the right kind of software vendor. This software vendor had a black mark against him and yet they went ahead with him.

Why was this company shortlisted? Who is responsible for signing off this software? Is it not the CBSE chairman's responsibility?

What about NEET and the National Testing Agency (NTA)?

This is all connected to coaching centres. They somehow get the exam question papers. This is happening for the last three years. This is an operational issue. Location level leakage is happening.

I am very sure inside NTA there are some embedded employees who are doing it. And no one is getting fired from their job.

If something like this happens in a private company s/he will be fired.

Do these things happen in other countries?

In the USA, every year exams takes place and you don't see such goofups happening.

I can understand goofup happening one year but how does this goofup happen consistently for three years?

In 2024 we had a huge NEET problem. The CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) raided places and arrested some people too. Again this happens in just two years. It is being said that this year the leak happened because of translators who leaked the papers.

Whoever it maybe, because when you have operational processes in place, question papers cannot be leaked. How is it possible?

UPSC (Union Public Service Commission) conducts exams every year. There is no leakage in those exams. Why can't these people learn from the UPSC?

When we have UPSC exams being conducted so successfully every year, why are we unable to conduct CBSE and NEET exams in a proper manner?

I think the government is experimenting a lot. They are chewing more than what they can swallow. They should go step by step. There is no point in launching everything together, you can do step by step.

Somewhere I feel the government wants to hit the headlines that we are doing this and we are doing that. In this rush such fiascos are happening.

The education minister and people below him should be accountable. Accountability is missing.

The education minister must resign, I have written that on my X post too. Let a new minister take charge and do a fair audit of this NTA and CBSE fiasco. Some third party has to audit it or the Supreme Court has to take up the matter and do the audit.

What will be your message to students who are going to give CBSE and NEET exams in future?

My message to students is that don't lose hope as these are operational issues. Things will get corrected.

You have to trust the country as operations can go wrong, but that does not mean that you can go on to blame the country.

You got to trust the system and systems will come back. We have a strong democratic system and the system will correct itself, there is no doubt about it.

Don't panic. Take help from your school officials. Be relaxed and take corrective action.