NEW DELHI: Amid concerns among students over possible loss of marks due to the use of On-Screen Marking (OSM) for evaluating Class XII board examinations, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has on Sunday sharply reduced the fees for obtaining answer sheets, verification and re-evaluation, while defending the digital evaluation system as a globally accepted and transparent method of assessment.Under the revised structure, the fee for obtaining a scanned copy of an evaluated answer sheet has been reduced from Rs 700 to Rs 100 per subject. The verification fee has also been cut from Rs 500 to Rs 100, while the re-evaluation fee per question has been reduced from Rs 100 to Rs 25.The changes come after some students and teachers raised concerns over the use of OSM, a digital evaluation method in which teachers assess scanned copies of answer sheets on screen. The overall Class XII pass percentage this year declined from 88% to 85%, leading to questions from some students over whether the evaluation process had affected scores.Officials said CBSE had first experimented with On-Screen Marking as a pilot project in 2014, but the system was not expanded then because of limitations in scanning infrastructure, bandwidth and digital evaluation capacity across regions. According to the ministry of education, the board has now revived the system following improvements in digital infrastructure and large-scale examiner training, while also citing the need for greater standardisation, reduction in totalling errors and tighter security in the evaluation process. Officials maintained that the marking scheme and moderation policy remained unchanged despite the shift in the mode of assessment. School education secretary Sanjay Kumar said there was “no direct correlation” between OSM and the decline in marks or pass percentage. “There has been no change in the marking scheme. Board examination results vary every year,” he said.Kumar said around 98.6 lakh answer sheets were scanned and evaluated digitally this year, while 13,853 copies had to be checked manually because the handwriting or ink used by students could not be read clearly after scanning.“No matter how many times we scanned them, there was illegibility because very light-coloured ink had been used,” he said, adding that such copies were separated and evaluated manually to avoid any disadvantage to students.CBSE chairperson Rahul Singh clarified that artificial intelligence was not used in the evaluation process. “Only the mode of marking has changed. Earlier, evaluation was done on physical answer sheets, while this year it was done on screen,” he said.Officials said the board would continue with the re-evaluation process and examine all applications. Students can apply for scanned copies of answer sheets between May 19 and May 22, while verification and re-evaluation applications can be submitted between May 26 and May 29.Officials maintained that OSM was an internationally accepted evaluation practice already used by several institutions, including Delhi University, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, International Baccalaureate and Cambridge boards. They said the digital system also reduced errors in totalling of marks and ensured adherence to prescribed marking schemes during evaluation.