New Delhi [India], May 25 (ANI): Calling once again for the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Congress RS MP Jairam Ramesh on Monday demanded accountability from the government for alleged irregularities in CBSE's grade 12 marking of answer sheets. The Congress leader called for PM Modi to address why the education minister's "ineptitude" has been allowed to continue for a long time.
"The CBSE introduced a On Screen Marking System (OSM) for Grade 12 Board Examinations which has thrown into chaos the academic futures of lakhs of children across the country," Jairam Ramesh wrote on X.
According to the party leader, the pass percentage of students has declined by 3 per cent, an unprecedented decline. He said that such a situation arose due to irregularities in the On Screen Marking (OSM) system.
"The Grade 12 pass percentage has declined by an unprecedented 3 percentage points (from 88% to 85%) and the process has been plagued by irregularities - blurred and illegible answer sheets, erroneous marking, incorrect answer sheets being attributed to students, payment delays, and outrageous revaluation fees being demanded from students," the Congress MP wrote on X.
He further questioned the Government for allegedly being unprepared for introducing a new system, criticizing how the Union Education Minister was portraying himself "as some saviour by bringing in IIT Kanpur to help address these technical issues."
"The question really is why these issues were not anticipated? Why did the CBSE and the Ministry not plan carefully before adopting this OSM system? Why did it take the Minister so long to respond to this issue?" he said.
The Congress MP further repeated his call for Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation, while also questioning the Prime Minister for allowing such "ineptitude" to continue.
"The Mantri Pradhan owes the country his resignation and the Pradhan Mantri owes us answers to why this Minister - who is openly disrupting the future of India's students with his ineptitude - has been allowed to continue for so long," he wrote.
In 2023, out of 16,60,511 students who appeared for examination, 14,50,174 passed, achieving a pass percentage of 87.33. In 2024, the pass percentage stood at 87.98 per cent, an increase of 0.65 per cent. However, within that time, around 20 thousand fewer students appeared for the exam. In 2025, the pass percentage yet again saw a jump of 0.41 per cent, registering at 88.39 per cent.
However, in 2026, a sharp decline was seen in the passing percentage of students, with the overall percentage dropping down to 85.20 per cent. This was also the year in which the CBSE introduced the new OSM system.
Following widespread social media backlash and anxiety among students over the newly introduced digital evaluation process, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Sunday announced that all the candidates who were charged extra while applying for scanned copies during the Class 12 post-result process will be refunded.
In a notice dated May 24, the CBSE said that certain technical issues led to incorrect fee deductions in some cases while students were applying for scanned copies on May 21 and May 22.
Amid the problems voiced by students and parents, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has extended the deadline for students to apply for scanned photocopies of their evaluated answer books from May 24 to May 25 midnight, 2026.
The circular issued by CBSE Controller of Examinations, Dr Sanyam Bhardwaj, reads, "In continuation of the circular dated 22.05.2026, and to provide adequate time to students for submitting requests to obtain scanned copies of their evaluated answer books, the last date has further been extended as follows: Original Last Date: 24.05.2026 Extended Date: 25.05.2026 (Mid Night)."
(ANI)
This report was published from a syndicated wire feed. Apart from the headline, the EdexLive Desk has not edited the copy.