The National Students' Union of India (NSUI) on Thursday organised a protest march in New Delhi against the Central Board of Secondary Education’s (CBSE) on-screen marking (OSM) system for Class 12 examinations, demanding that the policy be withdrawn and Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan resign over the controversy surrounding the evaluation process.
Accusing the OSM system of pushing “millions of students into darkness”, the Congress-affiliated student body claimed the evaluation process had caused severe mental stress among students and called for the system to be scrapped.
NSUI members participated in the march from Indira Bhawan to the CBSE headquarters at Shiksha Sadan and raised slogans of "we reject OSM", alleging that the policy has created confusion and additional pressure among students appearing for board examinations.
Speaking to PTI, an NSUI member questioned why the OSM system was introduced despite the board allegedly being unprepared for the transition.
“We have stuck CBSE-labelled placards covering our eyes to symbolise how papers were actually checked by the board — with their eyes closed. This is the reason for all this trouble,” he said.
The student body also alleged that although CBSE has 22 regional offices, training for the new system was conducted in only five offices, and that too barely a month before the examinations.
“The teachers are unprepared, as are the board officials,” the member claimed.
Protesters held placards reading “Give justice to CBSE students” and “Stop playing with the future of students”.
NSUI national president Vinod Jakhar alleged that students were being subjected to “experimental policies”, describing the OSM system as “anti-student”.
“Students don’t know on what basis they are getting marks, whether they are even getting marks or not. This experiment is nothing but a gross mishandling of the future of lakhs of students. Dharmendra Pradhan must resign as the education minister,” he added.
The Union education minister has acknowledged the portal issues and assured students and parents 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.
Apart from concerns over on-screen marking and re-evaluation, students and parents have also flagged irregularities in fee calculations on the portal. Several users alleged that the system displayed arbitrary re-evaluation charges ranging from as low as ₹1 to nearly ₹70,000 per subject.
Students further reported server crashes amid heavy traffic, failed payment transactions despite money being deducted, and poorly scanned or illegible copies of answer sheets uploaded on the portal.
The protest came a day after NSUI members demonstrated outside Pradhan’s residence over the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak controversy. Activists carried out a ‘mashaal’ (torch) march from ATM Square in Niladri Vihar towards the minister’s residence, where police stopped them from advancing, leading to a scuffle and the detention of several protesters.
“Today, Odisha has been defamed across the country because of the education minister. Many students across the country have died by suicide due to question paper leak incidents that took place during Pradhan's tenure,” alleged NSUI leader Aditya Pritam Das, while demanding the minister’s resignation.
Das warned that the student body would intensify protests during Pradhan’s future visits to Odisha if he did not step down.
Earlier, the National Testing Agency (NTA) announced the cancellation of NEET-UG 2026 and said the examination would be re-conducted on June 21, 2026. The CBI is currently investigating the alleged question paper leak.