It’s an unanticipated expense for parents and kids who find themselves in the re-evaluation window. Gandhi has been at the CBSE for having them pay to put right what he sees as errors in the new On-Screen Marking setup, and he has let on there are ‘pickpockets’ in the room. It only adds to the stress when you have college cut-off dates to think about.
What set off the row
The Lok Sabha’s Leader of Opposition made his case on X: if the scripts were done by the book in the first place, there would be no need for these charges. He put it down to a matter of justice for the kind of families that put their faith in the system to do things right.
According to the Congress leader, a student could be out of pocket for as much as Rs 2000 to have some numbers checked. And if 4 lakh youngsters have put in for such fixes, as he says they have, one has to wonder what the board is raking in. As he put it in a post: ‘Beware of pickpockets – today they’re sitting inside CBSE.’
How much is on the table
On their own, the fees in question don’t seem like much, but they add up in a hurry when you have multiple papers and questions to consider. For a family already making do with coaching and application costs, it is a bit of a pinch. Then you have the schools, who have to shepherding worried students through a tangle of rules and due dates.
Gandhi made a point of these in his write-up:
– Re-evaluation: Rs 25 a question
– Re-totalling: Rs 100 for the paper
– A digital scan: Rs 100 per subject
His take is straightforward: the kid is the one footing the bill for what are supposed to be the board’s missteps. He contends that with phone-based scanning, you’re bound to get some wrong, and it all feels a bit too commercial. ‘The mistake is CBSE’s. The punishment is the child’s. The earnings are the government’s,’ he said.
There is a real-world side to this for institutions. Counsellors are left to tell a student whether it is worth the money to go down a certain path. You see more requests come in from the admin side, and teachers are fielding the kind of queries about oddities that a parent doesn’t like to see.
The CBSE side of it
The board has some pushback for the stories going around. They say the portal that was supposedly hacked was nothing more than a test run with dummy data. There has been no inroad into the live portal, and marks and exam info are where they should be.
That said, the CBSE will admit the OSM ecosystem has had to be looked at. Some of the hiccups in the OnMark portal of their provider are being put under a microscope. They have brought in some heavy hitters from the IITs and other government bodies to put the system on a sturdier footing.
They have even put in a word of thanks to the good citizens and hackers who saw fit to point out some of the soft spots. What they are saying is that those issues have been put to bed and they are still running checks. To the schools and the students, the line is: we are being more careful, and we don’t buy the idea that the live system was ever in danger.
You can put the CBSE’s stance in a few points:
– The live evaluation portal was not breached
– The testing one was for sample data only
– Any vulnerabilities have been put in order and are being reviewed
– We have an expert team from the IITs and beyond on the job
Why it is on everyone’s mind at school
For the student, it comes down to how much it is and how fast you can get it done. You can look at a fee for a re-totalling or a scan as a form of insurance, but it is not cheap in the long run. And when you are in the middle of applying for a scholarship or an entrance exam, that kind of doubt is a distraction.
Schools want to be clear in what they are telling people. A little guidance on what you are actually getting for your money can head off some of the panic. If a child thinks a particular question was marked down, a re-evaluation on that alone is better than a sledgehammer approach, and it keeps the tab in check.
In the end, it is a trust issue. Gandhi has put a spotlight on whether moving to on-screen marking is really any more accurate, or just another hassle. How the CBSE follows through on its promises to fix the system and how open they are about it will be the measure of things for families now.
From here on in, it is a matter of practicality. A family has to look at each paper and decide if it is worth the trouble. The CBSE has made it known they are watching and have put up some barriers. But until that sense of confidence is back, the strain on the students and the ones supporting them is not going to go away.
