Less than 10 per cent of the 17.68 lakh CBSE students who took the Class XII exams have applied for verification and re-evaluation of answer sheets, according to data provided by the board, even as many students complained about failing to submit their requests.

This year’s assessment has been marred by the introduction of the on-screen marking (OSM) system, as opposed to manual assessment, of Class XII answer sheets. The board initially allowed students to obtain answer sheets till May 25 and thereafter seek re-evaluation on a dedicated portal from June 2 to 7.

Last week, the CBSE said it had provided 8 lakh answer sheets of various subjects to nearly 4 lakh students who felt they were awarded low marks because of the “flawed” OSM system. In a post on X on Monday, the CBSE said the application window for verification and revaluation remained functional from June 2 to June 7. During this period, only 1.6 lakh candidates submitted re-evaluation requests for 3.8 lakh answer books.

Laksh Singh, a student, posted on X: “Website was not working yesterday night because of it, I can’t submit my re-evaluation. Please solve my issues.” Another student, Lokesh Bhardwaj, requested the CBSE to reopen the window to apply for answer sheet photocopies. “I did not get a photocopy of my answer sheets
because of previous glitches on the website.”

The CBSE allowed only those candidates who had applied for scanned copies of their answer sheets to seek re-evaluation.

Rajeev Kumar, a retired computer science professor of IIT Kharagpur, said the CBSE should have provided copies of answer sheets to all 17.68 lakh candidates because of mistakes in scanning.

“Hardly 10 per cent copies were released by the CBSE. Some students are complaining that they could not submit applications for copies and many others have said they did not receive copies despite submitting requests. The CBSE and the government have admitted there have been discrepancies in the results this year. The education minister has taken moral responsibility for the mistakes. Under such circumstances, all students should be automatically provided answer copies and all re-evaluation requests should be accepted. There should be sufficient time.”