New Delhi: Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Thursday broke his silence over the CBSE On-Screen Marking (OSM) controversy, taking personal responsibility for the crisis and warning that 'no one will be spared' if irregularities are found in the evaluation process.
“I take responsibility. It will be fixed, a solution will be found. We are all working on that task,” Pradhan said after meeting CBSE officials in Delhi.
The minister’s remarks follow a week of mounting complaints from students over blurred answer sheet scans, alleged unchecked responses, portal crashes and payment failures during re-evaluation. Pradhan defended the OSM model as “a progressive instrument” adopted by institutions globally, while acknowledging the distress students had faced.
He cited the scale of the exercise to contextualise the disruptions. “Out of the 17 lakh students who took the exam, we have maintained the answer scripts of 98 lakh copies,” he said, adding that with around 40 pages per booklet, the system had processed nearly 40 crore scanned pages.
With Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi publicly demanding accountability, the issue has acquired a political dimension. Pradhan hit back, accusing Gandhi of repeatedly opposing Digital India initiatives, though he urged restraint. “Politics can be done later. Right now, the most important thing is that the mental stress of these students should not increase further,” he said.
CBSE has since extended its re-evaluation deadline and assured students that all genuine grievances will be reviewed by subject experts.