Meet The New CBSE Chief

Sarthak Sidhant, a 17-year-old student from Jharkhand affected by CBSE's online marking system, made a presentation before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Tuesday on alleged irregularities in the tendering process for the selection of vendors for online marking of Class 12 answer scripts.

Lokhande Prashant Sitaram

IMAGE: According to The Secretariat web site Lokhande Prashant Sitaram 'born on 20 November 1973, is a 2001 batch IAS officer of the AGMUT cadre. He holds a BE in mechanical engineering from Pune University and a postgraduate diploma in industrial engineering from NITIE Mumbai.'
Before his appointment as CBSE chairman, he served as additional secretary at the ministry of home affairs. Photograph: X

Key Points

Centre replaced CBSE chairperson and secretary amid mounting scrutiny over the online evaluation system.
Parliamentary panel examined student complaints and allegations linked to OSM procurement and answer-book evaluation.
Government constituted a one-member inquiry committee to investigate procurement of OSM services by CBSE.
Students reported blurred answer sheets, missing pages, evaluation discrepancies and portal-related technical issues.
CBSE activated its re-evaluation portal, introduced Aadhaar verification and cited attempted cyberattacks.

CBSE Leadership Shake-Up

The Centre on Tuesday replaced top officials of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) amid the escalating controversy over the board's on-screen marking (OSM) system and complaints related to evaluation, answer-book access and re-evaluation processes.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet appointed Lokhande Prashant Sitaram, an AGMUT-cadre IAS officer of the 2001 batch, as chairperson of CBSE, replacing Rahul Singh, who has been moved to the agriculture ministry as additional secretary.

Varun Bhardwaj, an Indian Forest Service officer of the 2008 batch, was appointed CBSE secretary in place of Himanshu Gupta, with a tenure up to September 19, 2027.

The changes come after scrutiny of the digital evaluation framework intensified following student grievances and parliamentary attention to the issue.

Student Complaints Intensify

The ongoing OSM row has triggered widespread complaints from students over technical glitches, discrepancies in evaluated answer books and problems in the post-result verification and re-evaluation process.

The issue was also taken up by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, which had summoned senior officials from the ministry of education and CBSE to discuss concerns arising from the implementation of the OSM system.

Parliamentary Panel Seeks Answers

PTI reported that Sarthak Sidhant, a 17-year-old student from Jharkhand affected by CBSE's online marking system, made a presentation before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Tuesday on alleged irregularities in the tendering process for the selection of vendors for online marking of Class 12 answer scripts.

Quoting sources, PTI reported that Sidhant submitted a seven-page report detailing the anomalies in the procurement process and a set of questions for the board regarding the selection of vendors for the OSM system.

The presentation was made in the presence of CBSE Chairman Rahul Singh, School Education Secretary Sanjay Kumar and other officials from the ministry of education and the board.

Sources said Committee Chairman Digvijaya Singh heard the student at length and sought responses from CBSE officials on the issues raised in the report.

The board also submitted a note to committee members presenting its position on the problems reported by students during the post-result process.

OSM Procurement Under Scanner

Separately, the Cabinet Secretariat has constituted a one-member committee to inquire into matters relating to the procurement of OSM services by CBSE, according to an office memorandum dated June 2.

The memorandum states that the committee will be headed by S Radha Chauhan, chairperson of the Capacity Building Commission.

It has been empowered to seek assistance from officers of other offices as required, while secretarial support will be provided by the commission.

'The committee will submit its report within a month to the Department of Personnel and Training,' the order said.

The inquiry specifically relates to the procurement of services for the OSM system, which CBSE introduced for the evaluation of Class XII board examination answer scripts this year.

The digital marking system has been at the centre of controversy following complaints from students regarding alleged evaluation discrepancies, mismatched answer sheets, missing pages, blurred scanned copies and technical issues on CBSE's post-result portals.

The developments come against the backdrop of growing pressure on the board over the handling of the 2026 examination cycle.

In recent weeks, parliamentary committees, Opposition leaders and student groups have sought explanations from CBSE and the ministry of education regarding the rollout of OSM.

They have also questioned the redressal mechanism available to students affected by the system.

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CBSE Opens Re-evaluation Portal, Adds Aadhaar Check

A day after its verification and re-evaluation portal remained inoperative despite being scheduled to open, the Central Board of Secondary Education on Tuesday activated the facility for students seeking redressal of issues in scanned answer books and re-evaluation of answers for the 2026 board examinations, even as it claimed the platform came under multiple cyberattack attempts during the day.

The portal, which will remain open until June 6, comes amid continuing complaints from students over blurred scanned copies, missing pages, missing supplementary sheets and other discrepancies in evaluated answer books accessed through CBSE's Online Service Management (OSM) portal.

In a post on X, CBSE said the re-evaluation portal was supporting more than 8,000 concurrent users and had processed over 16,000 successful submissions by 3 pm on Tuesday.

The board said malicious actors attempted to disrupt services through a barrage of cyberattacks, including a denial-of-service (DoS) attack that generated 1.5 million hits on the portal within two minutes and more than 100,000 attempts at unauthorised file access.

'Based on student feedback, we have further refined the platform, including extending session time limits to make the process more convenient and seamless,' the board said, adding that its cybersecurity teams remained vigilant.

In a separate post on X, the board said Aadhaar verification has been introduced 'for security reasons'.

Students will be required to enter their Aadhaar number while logging into the portal.

Those who do not possess Aadhaar may use the Aadhaar details of a parent, relative or guardian.

'Please note that Aadhaar verification has been included for security reasons. For children who do not have Aadhaar, a parent's, relative's or guardian's Aadhaar details may be used,' CBSE said.

The board added that the Aadhaar name, date of birth and gender entered on the portal must correspond to the details of the person whose Aadhaar number is being used.

The Aadhaar requirement has also drawn questions from some stakeholders.

CBSE had earlier integrated APAAR (Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry) IDs into the board examination registration process, although it later relaxed the requirement in cases where APAAR IDs had not been generated.

Critics on social media have questioned why the re-evaluation portal could not be authenticated through the APAAR framework, which is linked to student records, instead of requiring Aadhaar details separately.

"This system would work only if Aadhaar is seeded during students' enrolment for the examination. Introducing any new variable at this stage could become more challenging in the case of some students," said Deepak Maheshwari, senior policy advisor at the Centre for Social and Economic Progress.

"On one hand, it could provide some sort of verification but, on the other hand, it could unnecessarily expose particular details."

Maheshwari added that several people do not have their dates of birth recorded in Aadhaar, which could lead to further confusion in matching identities.

The move follows weeks of scrutiny over CBSE's post-result processes after students raised concerns about the quality and completeness of scanned answer books supplied through the OSM portal.

Several students had complained on social media that copies provided by the board were blurred, incomplete or missing pages, making it difficult to verify evaluation.

'Students may apply online for resolution of issues observed in the supplied scanned copy of the answer book, including missing pages, missing supplementary sheets, missing maps/graphs, blurred pages, incorrect answer book, or evaluation against a different set,' the board said.

Last month, CBSE slashed re-evaluation fees, reducing the fee for obtaining scanned copies of answer sheets to Rs 100 from Rs 700, verification charges to Rs 100 from Rs 500, and re-evaluation fees to Rs 25 per question from Rs 100.

Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff