New Delhi, May 25 (IANS) Congress MP Jairam Ramesh on Monday launched a sharp attack on the Centre and Union Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, over alleged irregularities in the Central Board of Secondary Education’s newly-introduced On Screen Marking (OSM) system for Class 12 Board examinations, claiming the process has created uncertainty for lakhs of students across the country.

Congress General Secretary incharge Communications and MP, Jairam Ramesh, in a post on X, alleged that the rollout of the OSM system had “thrown into chaos the academic futures of lakhs of children” and raised serious questions over the functioning of the CBSE.

Ramesh claimed that the Class 12 pass percentage had declined by three percentage points this year, from 88 per cent to 85 per cent, and alleged that the evaluation process was marred by several irregularities, including blurred and illegible answer sheets, erroneous marking, incorrect answer sheets being assigned to students, delays in payments, and “outrageous” revaluation fees.

“The CBSE introduced an On-Screen Marking System for Grade 12 Board Examinations which has thrown into chaos the academic futures of lakhs of children across the country. The Grade 12 pass percentage has declined by an unprecedented three percentage points and the process has been plagued by irregularities,” Ramesh said in his post.

The OSM system is a digital evaluation method where physical exam papers are scanned, digitally masked to hide student identities, and evaluated by teachers on a computer screen.

Targeting Union Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, the Congress leader said the Minister had responded only after concerns had escalated and accused him of failing to anticipate challenges before implementing the system.

“Now the Education Minister, who is presiding over total institutional collapse, has finally woken up to this tragedy, more than a week after it first came to light. He’s portraying himself as some saviour by bringing in IIT Kanpur to help address these technical issues,” Ramesh said.

He further questioned why the CBSE and the Education Ministry had not planned adequately before adopting the digital marking system and why it took more than a week for an official response.

Sharpening the attack on the Centre, Ramesh said, “The Mantri Pradhan owes the country his resignation and the Pradhan Mantri owes us answers on why this Minister, who is openly disrupting the future of India’s students with his ineptitude, has been allowed to continue for so long.”

–IANS

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