Weeks after the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) declared Class 12 results, the controversy over its On-Screen Marking (OSM) system continues, with students now alleging incorrect marking, blurred scans of answer sheets, and repeated glitches on the re-evaluation portal.Students celebrate and cheer after the declaration of CBSE Class 12 board results at their school, in Prayagraj on Wednesday. (ANI)Several students across streams, especially in subjects such as Physics, Mathematics, Accountancy and Economics, had earlier claimed they received unexpectedly low marks despite strong academic performance during the academic year.The board had subsequently opened the process for verification of marks, access to scanned answer books and re-evaluation. But students now report that the re-evaluation mechanism itself has exposed deeper flaws.‘Blurred answer sheets, unchecked responses’However, after downloading scanned copies of their evaluated answer sheets, several students alleged that portions of the documents were so blurred that the handwriting itself was difficult to read.“How are evaluators checking copies if students themselves cannot read the scanned pages?” one user wrote on X while sharing screenshots of allegedly blurred pages from an evaluated answer book.Other students claimed that the answers and calculations they had attempted were left unchecked altogether. Some claimed that marks awarded on individual pages did not match the final totals reflected in the result.According to a news agency ANI report, several complaints also centred around the lack of step marking in numerical subjects, with students alleging that marks were either ignored or awarded inconsistently.Students further raised concerns that answers spread across multiple pages may have been evaluated only partially under the digital system.Portal crashes add to frustrationApart from complaints related to evaluation, students also flagged repeated technical glitches on the re-evaluation portal. Many alleged that the website crashed frequently during payment and application submission.“The portal isn't functioning properly. Payments are failing, and copies are not loading,” a user wrote on X. Another student claimed that the website became inaccessible during peak hours.The criticism comes amid ongoing backlash over the rollout of the OSM system, which was implemented for Class 12 evaluations this year.What is the OSM ControversyUnder the OSM system introduced this year, answer sheets were scanned digitally and evaluated by teachers on computer screens rather than being physically checked.The controversy erupted after the board’s overall Class 12 pass percentage dropped to 85.20% this year from 88.39% last year. This is the lowest pass percentage recorded since 2019.Students suggest that the newly inducted system, in which CBSE digitally evaluated 98,66,622 answer books under the OSM, may have been responsible for the 3.19 per cent drop in the passing percentage. The CBSE has added that 13,583 copies had to be checked manually because repeated scanning attempts failed to generate legible images.CBSE defends digital evaluation systemEven as criticism mounted, CBSE and Union education ministry officials defended the new technology-driven evaluation process earlier this week, arguing that the system ensured greater transparency and objectivity in assessment.Addressing a press conference on Sunday, department of school education and literacy secretary Sanjay Kumar said fluctuations in Class 12 results were not new and that pandemic-era relaxations had earlier inflated pass percentages.“The system is now stabilising, and the marking process has become far more objective,” Kumar said.He also stressed that the evaluation method itself had not fundamentally changed, except that answer sheets were now assessed digitally instead of physically.Singh stressed that “only teachers evaluated each copy in the OSM and no AI was used in the evaluation of answer scripts."CBSE cuts re-evaluation fees after backlashFollowing widespread criticism from students and parents, CBSE also revised the re-evaluation fee structure.Under the revised structure, the fee for obtaining scanned copies of evaluated answer sheets has been reduced to ₹100 per subject from ₹700. Charges for verification of marks have also been cut to ₹100 from ₹500.The fee for re-evaluating specific questions has meanwhile been reduced from ₹100 to ₹25 per question.(With inputs from Sanjay Maurya)