The transfer of top CBSE officials over the Class XII results fiasco has drawn criticism from academics and a former bureaucrat who feel it might delay the process of corrective action.

The Centre on Tuesday transferred CBSE chairman Rahul Singh and secretary Himanshu Gupta amid growing discontent among students and parents over flaws in the evaluation of answer sheets under the new on-screen marking (OSM) system.

Former school education secretary Anil Swarup told The Telegraph that the shifting of officers in a hurried manner, without prima facie determining wrongdoing and the persons responsible for it, would delay corrective action.

“The point is that you need to improve the system. For that, incumbent officers, who are more conversant with the system, are better placed to act and plug the loopholes, provided they are not responsible for the wrongdoing. A quick inquiry is needed to identify the guilty,” he said.

Action should be taken against the guilty officer instead of transferring him, Swarup said.

“Transfer is no action. If a person is at fault in one organisation, how can he be suitable for another organisation without facing disciplinary action?” he said.

Swarup cited the paper leak in the CBSE Class XII exam in 2018, when then Union minister of human resource development Prakash Javadekar had pressured him to transfer then CBSE chairperson Anita Karwal.

“We quickly conducted an inquiry and found that the chairperson at that time had no role in the paper leak. I resisted the minister’s pressure to transfer the chairperson. She later did a good job in checking the leak in the board exam,” Swarup said.

He said if officers were being shifted on moral grounds, then the moral responsibility lay with the education minister first. “If moral ground is the criterion, the (education) minister should take moral responsibility and resign,” Swarup said.

Prof. C.B. Sharma, the vice-chancellor of Vinoba Bhave University in Hazaribagh and former chairman of the National Institute of Open Schooling, said transfer was no punishment under the Central Civil Services (Conduct) Rules. He said shifting top CBSE officials was nothing more than an administrative reshuffle.

“In universities, the VCs are sent on leave for several months if they are found to be at fault. Why are similar actions not taken in the case of civil servants heading organisations? I have noticed that only teachers are punished over wrong decisions in institutions while bureaucrats heading institutions are never punished,” Sharma said.

He cited the example of Subodh Kumar Singh, currently serving as private secretary to the Chhattisgarh chief minister and chairman of Chhattisgarh State Power Transmission Company Ltd. Singh was the director-general of the National Testing Agency (NTA) in 2024 when the NEET paper was leaked, and it led to his transfer.

“Was that transfer punishment or promotion?” Sharma asked.

Capacity Building Commission chairperson S. Radha Chauhan has been appointed by the government to head a one-member committee to probe the CBSE’s on-screen marking (OSM) fiasco.

“Ideally, a cyber expert should have headed the committee because the controversy involves issues of cybersecurity and technology. A bureaucrat has been asked to inquire into the role of bureaucrats,” Sharma said.

The principal of a private school said the transfers were aimed at assuaging public anger rather than setting the house in order.

“Had the government been serious about the issue, it should have taken action immediately after the controversy when students began complaining about the exchange of answer sheets and glitches on the CBSE website. It waited for over 15 days and then transferred the top officials when protests started gaining momentum,” the principal said.

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh demanded education minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s removal.

“The CBSE leadership may have been transferred out, but the Mantri Pradhan is shamelessly digging his heels in office even while evidence of his Ministry’s incompetence and corruption piles up,” he posted on X.

“We have learnt from media reporting that the CBSE could not answer questions regarding its On Screen Marking (OSM) procurement raised by the Digvijaya Singh-led Parliamentary Standing Committee on
Education after it heard from 18-year-old student Sarthak Sidhant, who had first flagged the corruption in the tender via social media,” Ramesh added.

This is a glaring lack of accountability at the highest level of the CBSE and the education ministry, the Congress leader alleged.

New chief

Prashant Lokhande’s appointment as the CBSE chairman has been hailed as a major achievement for the late Chintamanrao Deshmukh Administrative Training Institute, managed by the Thane Municipal Corporation, where he received training for the UPSC exams in 1995.

Lokhande had received guidance and training at the academy while preparing for civil services, according to a release by the Thane civic body.

His appointment to head the country’s largest school education board has brought recognition to the institute and its alumni, it added.

Additional reporting by PTI