India is experiencing what can only be described as a national exam-grading disaster, with over 400,000 students demanding copies of their answer sheets after the government introduced a shiny new digital marking system that appears to have achieved the exact opposite of its intended purpose.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) proudly rolled out its on-screen marking (OSM) system, promising to reduce human error and boost efficiency. Instead, students are reporting incomplete scans, missing pages, blurry images, mismatched answer sheets, and grades that bear little resemblance to their actual work. At least 1.7 million students sat the class 12 exams, which determine university admissions, and the board has already received requests for 1.1 million answer sheet copies from more than 400,000 students.
One mother, Geetu Moza, took to X to vent that her daughter lost at least 30 marks despite answers that "exactly matched the official answer." She asked the obvious question: "Do the authorities even understand what 30-35 marks can mean for a Class 12 student whose entire future and admission process depends on these scores?"
The chaos was kicked off by Delhi student Vedant Srivastava, who went viral after requesting his physics exam answer sheet and receiving one that clearly wasn't his - different handwriting, answers he never wrote. "I studied for an entire year. I sacrificed sleep, peace of mind, outings, everything for these exams," he wrote. "And now I don't even know whether my actual physics paper was checked." Days later, the board emailed what it called the "correct copy."
Adding to the absurdity, the board announced the new marking system just eight days before exams began, leaving teachers scrambling to adapt. Education minister Dharmendra Pradhan has acknowledged "some discrepancies" and assured the public a solution will be found - which, given the track record so far, may involve another last-minute system change.