Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Thursday hit back at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his remarks on alleged discrepancies in the CBSE exam system
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NEW DELHI — Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Thursday hit back at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his remarks on alleged discrepancies in the CBSE exam system, saying he was "frustrated" and "opposed" to India's technological progress.
The response came after Gandhi on Wednesday said the CBSE examination results have been marred by "massive irregularities" and demanded an independent judicial inquiry and constitution of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to unearth the truth behind the "entire scam". He had also alleged that a firm with a murky past in Telangana was handed the contract by CBSE for digital evaluation of answer books.
"Yesterday, CBSE gave its response regarding this matter. It is in accordance with the procurement policy of the Government of India. I want to assure everyone that if any irregularities are found, no one will be spared," Pradhan said.
Targeting Gandhi, the minister said the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha appeared "frustrated" due to continuous electoral defeats and accused him of opposing reforms and technological progress.
"But as far as Rahul Gandhi is concerned, he seems to have reached a different state of mind. Due to continuous electoral defeats, he appears frustrated. He opposed SIR, he used to oppose EVMs, and he opposed Digital India. He does not seem to stand with India's scientific progress," he said.
Pradhan also said that issues related to students and examinations should not be politicised.
"As far as this issue is concerned, I myself take responsibility on behalf of the government for any inconvenience, and I request everyone that this is not the time for politics. I have said this earlier as well. Politics can be done later," he said.
"The most important thing is that the mental stress of these students and examinees should not increase further. We appeal to everyone that no one's words or behaviour should add to their stress," the minister added.
The Education minister also said that some issues have come to light regarding the evaluation process.
"Today, certain issues have come to light regarding the CBSE Class 12 examination evaluation process, and a re-evaluation process will now begin," Pradhan said.
The minister noted that around 17 lakh students appeared for the examination, and the answer sheets of each student has been securely preserved.
"In total, there are 98 lakh answer-sheet copies, with each copy consisting of around 40 pages, which means nearly 40 crore scanned pages were evaluated for the first time by CBSE through the OSM process," he said.
Describing OSM as a "progressive and student-centric" system, the minister said several institutions in India and abroad are adopting such mechanisms for greater transparency in evaluation.
"Through this process, students can transparently access information about their marks, and through scanned copies, they can directly view their answer sheets. It helps address students' doubts and concerns regarding whether they received fewer or more marks, or whether any answer or section was overlooked during evaluation," he said.
Pradhan said this was the first time CBSE had implemented the system on such a large-scale and acknowledged that some discrepancies had come to notice.
"This is the first time CBSE has implemented this system in the country. Certain discrepancies have come to our notice, and I take responsibility for them," the minister said.
"These issues will be rectified, and appropriate solutions will be worked out. All of us are engaged in this task. We will not leave a single student's unanswered query or concern unresolved," he added.
The CBSE also said its On-Screen Marking (OSM) system is backed by a "secure and robust IT platform".
The Board said the platform has been "tested and certified through empanelled security audits" and is supported by a "robust digital infrastructure" with multiple quality checks and safeguards for secure scanning and processing of answer books.
Gandhi had said CBSE students and their parents are traumatised but Prime Minister Narendra Modi "has nothing to say."
In a video put out on his social media accounts, Gandhi said unbelievable details are emerging about the class 12 CBSE exam.
"COEMPT, the company that did the On-Screen Marking (OSM) for your exam, was actually called Globarena. Globarena has carried out this scam twice before in Telangana, once in the board exam in Telangana in 2019 and after that again in Telangana in 2023. The same OSM-based errors were responsible for the death by suicide of 23 young Indians in Telangana," the leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha had said.
"This was all public information. It was known to everybody and yet for some hidden reason the CBSE chose the same company again. It took us 30 seconds to figure out that this company was earlier called something else. I am absolutely certain that the people in the CBSE and in the government of India were aware of this company's background," Gandhi had said.
The row escalated after many Class 12 students alleged scoring discrepancies and also that the scanned copies of their answer sheets uploaded by the Board did not match their handwriting, raising concerns over possible answer-sheet mismatch in the OSM system.