Sarthak Sidhant, one of the students affected by the Central Board of Secondary Education's (CBSE) On-Screen Marking (OSM) system, appeared before the Parliamentary panel on Tuesday to present his findings on the alleged irregularities in the OSM tendering process.
The meeting, held at the Parliament House Annexe, comes amid growing concerns over alleged technical glitches, discrepancies in evaluation and challenges faced by students during the post-result verification process.
The committee on education, women, children, youth and sports was reviewing the use of OSM in Class 12 CBSE examinations and examining concerns related to transparency and accountability in the assessment process.
According to reports, Sidhant made a presentation before the panel, which is also hearing first-hand accounts from students affected by the system.
Sidhant had alleged that a comparison of multiple CBSE tender documents revealed several discrepancies that, according to him, appeared to favour a particular service provider.
Speaking to ANI, he said, "There were many discrepancies. I have just compared them. There were at least 15 discrepancies as per my blog. I would like to highlight three or four of them."
Sidhant, in his blog, pointed to changes in tender conditions governing the OSM system and claimed that clauses related to poor performance, blacklisting, financial qualification limits, CMMI levels and project eligibility criteria were altered across successive tenders.
"The first discrepancy is that in the old tender, there were three clauses of poor performance, that the service provider would be disqualified if they have poor performance. But in the new RFP, it was totally wiped out," he alleged in his blog.
The student said his research was undertaken in collaboration with ethical hacker Nisarg Adhikari and journalists investigating the issue.
He expressed hope that the matter would lead to greater transparency in public procurement and educational evaluation systems.
Sidhant also clarified that he was not opposed to the OSM system itself but believed it required more extensive testing before implementation.
"I think OSM is a good change, but there should be wide rollouts first and good demo pilots," he said.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee has summoned secretary, department of school education and literacy, Sanjay Kumar, and CBSE chairperson Rahul Singh to brief members on the implementation of the OSM system and the issues reported by students.
The panel has also called the director general of the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), signalling that members may examine the technological and cybersecurity aspects of the controversy, including concerns related to system glitches, data integrity and the robustness of the digital evaluation infrastructure.
Headed by Congress MP Digvijaya Singh, the committee is expected to assess whether the transition to technology-driven evaluation systems has been implemented effectively and whether adequate safeguards are in place to protect students' interests.
Apart from the OSM issue, the committee is also reviewing the implementation of the three-language formula in Classes 9 and 10, a subject that has generated debate among education stakeholders and state governments.
The panel is one of Parliament's 24 standing committees. Comprising 31 members—21 from the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha—it is nominated by the Speaker of the Lok Sabha and the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, with members serving a one-year term.
The committee examines legislation, budgetary allocations, policy matters and specific issues.