The government on Tuesday removed the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) chairman against the backdrop of the fiasco over the new digital marking system for the Class XII board exams.
The appointments committee of the cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved the transfer of CBSE chairman Rahul Singh, according to an official order. The panel also approved the “premature repatriation” of CBSE secretary Himanshu Gupta to his parent cadre.
The order said the committee had approved the appointment of Lokhande Prashant Sitaram, an additional secretary in the home ministry, as CBSE chairman.
Singh has been made additional secretary in the department of agriculture and farmers’ welfare under the agriculture ministry, the order said.
The Centre on Tuesday also ordered a probe by a high-powered committee into the CBSE’s selection of the agency whose technical services were enlisted for the on-screen marking (OSM) system.
The “flawed” OSM is believed to have affected the scores of students, a problem compounded by the malfunctioning of the portal through which students are to seek re-evaluation.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has alleged that the OSM contract was given to the Hyderabad-based COEMPT despite the company having bungled a similar exam evaluation assignment in Telangana. The CBSE has rejected the charge of a lack of due diligence.
Also on Tuesday, a 17-year-old student from Jharkhand, affected by the CBSE’s digital marking system, appeared before a parliamentary panel and flagged “anomalies” in the tendering process.
Sarthak Sidhant, who sat for the board examination, presented a seven-page copy of his “findings” before the parliamentary committee for education, women, children, youth and sports, chaired by Congress MP Digvijaya Singh.
Sarthak’s presentation to the parliamentary panel came in the presence of Singh before he was removed as CBSE chairman. School education secretary Sanjay Kumar and senior ministry and CBSE officials were also present.
At the meeting, the CBSE submitted to the members a report presentingthe board’s side in the controversy. It assured the MPsthat the portal glitcheshad been rectified and the students would have timetill June 6 to apply for the re-evaluation of their answer sheets.
Later in the day, the CBSE said “malicious actors” had attempted to disrupt services on its re-evaluation portal through a barrage of cyberattacks.
This allegedly included a “denial-of-service” strike that caused “1.5 million hits” on the platform within two minutes and more than one lakh attempts at unauthorised file access.
The board, however, said the portal was currently supporting over 8,000 concurrent users, and more than 16,000 students had completed their re-evaluation submissions by 3pm.
The CBSE has made Aadhaar verification mandatory for the students applying for re-evaluation. For children who do not have the card, the Aadhaar details of a parent or guardian or relative will do.
Yet, many students complained of difficulties in submitting applications.
“I am not able to log into the site u have giveneven. After filling all the right details it is showing verification failed. I have wasted an hour over this silly issue of yours. Someday your site isn’t opening someday it’s bugged. Is it a joke to you our lives and future?” X user Arnav Walia wrote.
The cabinet secretariaton Tuesday issued a memorandum announcing the constitution of a one-member committee to inquire intomatters relating to the CBSE’s procurement of servicesfor the OSM. The committee will be chaired by S. Radha Chauhan, chairperson of the Capacity Building Commission, the cabinet secretariat said.
Chauhan has been empowered to seek the assistanceof officials from other departments, as required,while the Capacity BuildingCommission will providesecretarial help to the panel.
The committee will submit its report to the department of personnel and training within a month.