CBSE reduces re-evaluation charges after OSM scrutiny; students to get answer scripts for Rs 100

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Sunday announced a revised and significantly lower fee structure for revaluation-related services as questions continue to surface over the On-Screen Marking (OSM) introduced in this year’s board evaluation process.The announcement was made during a press conference addressed by Sanjay Kumar, Secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education. The ministry said the move was aimed at reducing anxiety among students seeking verification or review of their marks after the Class 10 and 12 results.Under the revised structure, students will now have to pay Rs 100 to access scanned copies of their answer scripts and another Rs 100 for verification of marks. Correction requests will cost Rs 25 per question. Earlier, students had to pay Rs 700 to access answer sheets, Rs 500 for verification of marks, and Rs 100 for every question challenged.'Eliminated totalling error': Education Ministry defends On-Screen Marking amid Class 12 result rowThe board has also decided to refund the entire fee paid by a student if marks increase after the re-evaluation or verification process.“We will charge a fee of Rs 100 from any student who wishes to view their answer sheets; a separate fee of Rs 100 applies if they wish to have their papers validated; and a fee of Rs 25 applies for the re-checking of the answer to any specific question,” Kumar said.“We have decided that if, during the scrutiny process, a student's marks increase or are revised upwards, we will refund the entire amount paid by them for the re-evaluation,” he added.The revised structure includes:The revised fees come at a time when CBSE’s digital evaluation model has been facing criticism from students and parents, particularly over concerns related to transparency, scanning quality and discrepancies in marking.Trying to address these concerns, Kumar said the ministry had called the press conference specifically to “clear the anxiety among students regarding OSM.”He said the digital evaluation framework was not a sudden shift and had first been planned in 2014 before being reintroduced this year after preparation and training exercises.According to officials, nearly 98 lakh answer sheets were scanned and converted into PDFs before being digitally shared with evaluators. CBSE said a three-level security mechanism was used during scanning to ensure that no pages were missed and all answer sheets remained readable.“When there is an online digital system, the marking schema also gets decided. This ensures zero totalling errors,” Kumar said.Officials said evaluator training for the new system had begun in April last year using previous years’ question papers.The ministry also pointed to other institutions that already use similar digital evaluation systems, including the University of Delhi, University of Mumbai, Chartered Accountancy examinations and International Baccalaureate boards.At the same time, officials acknowledged that more than 13,000 answer scripts could not be scanned because of handwriting legibility and ink-related issues. Those papers were evaluated physically instead.“The welfare and concern of all our children is of utmost importance to us,” Kumar said.“Therefore, we want to ensure that no child feels, for any reason whatsoever, that they have received lower marks than they deserve either based on their merit or the actual performance reflected in the answers they wrote during the examination,” he added.The board’s latest move appears aimed at easing immediate concerns around access to answer sheets and affordability of the re-evaluation process. The larger question, however, is whether the revised fee structure will also reduce the growing distrust some students have expressed over the digital marking system itself.