‘Beware of pickpockets’:Rahul Gandhi targets CBSE over re-evaluation glitches, fees; says students paying for board’s mistakes

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday questioned the Centre and the CBSE over the answer sheet verification and re-evaluation process. In a post on X, he wrote, “Students are being forced to pay extra money just to ensure that their own answer sheets are evaluated correctly. If marks are wrongly awarded due to a CBSE error, why should students and their families bear the burden?” He further wrote: Students have to pay ₹100 per subject to obtain a digital scanned copy, ₹100 per paper for re-totaling, and ₹25 per question for re-evaluation. A student may end up spending as much as ₹2,000 simply to get their answer sheet checked properly. When nearly four lakh students have filed such applications, a legitimate question arises — how much revenue is CBSE earning from this process? Rahul Gandhi says possibility of incorrect marking increases Questioning the country’s education system, Rahul said that when education is treated as a business rather than a service, mistakes are not corrected but multiplied. According to him, children end up paying the biggest price in terms of their time, confidence and future. May 31: Rahul met CBSE Class 12 students Rahul Gandhi had met a group of CBSE Class 12 students and later posted a 1.30-minute video of the interaction on X. In the caption, he wrote: “The courageous young people who asked simple questions to CBSE and the Modi government were met not with answers, but with insults.” In the video, students told Rahul that after raising questions about answer sheets, they were labelled anti-national, deep-state agents, terrorists and Pakistanis. Laughing, Rahul remarked, “Seventeen-year-old deep-state agents?” Among the students was Vedant, whose social media post had gone viral after he claimed that during re-evaluation, the Physics answer sheet uploaded on the portal belonged partly to another student. Following his complaint, several other students reported similar issues. Rahul’s conversation with students Vedant: “My exam had gone very well, but my marks were unexpectedly low. We had the option to apply for photocopies of our answer sheets. When I checked my Physics answer sheet, the first page had my handwriting, but the subsequent pages had someone else’s handwriting. I realised it wasn’t my answer sheet, so I raised the issue on X. A lot of people supported me because it was a very unusual case.” Another student: “But when public anger started growing, some people assumed we were deep-state agents trying to create unrest in India.” Rahul (laughing): “Seventeen-year-old deep-state agents? Show these terrorists’ faces!” Student: “Soros.” Rahul (laughing): “Soros? Soros has entered the picture too. Pakistan, Soros — everyone has arrived.” Another student: “They started calling us anti-national and Pakistani.” Rahul: “This is crazy.” Student: “This is very crazy. It’s not right.” Rahul: “You are students. You have nothing to do with any of these things. You are simply asking questions about your answer sheets. That’s all. Suddenly, you become anti-national. If you want to solve a problem, you first have to acknowledge that it exists. Instead, the government is blaming children, saying students are deep-state agents, spies and terrorists. Did they even call you terrorists?” Students: “Yes, they did.” Rahul (laughing): “Well done.” Congress alleges privacy risk for 20 lakh students The Congress also targeted the government over the Online Scanned Marksheet (OSM) process, alleging that answer sheets of nearly 20 lakh Class 12 students were available in the public domain. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh described it as a major data leak that posed a serious threat to students’ privacy. May 27: Rahul raised questions over COEMPT On May 27, Rahul Gandhi questioned COEMPT, the company handling the OSM process. He said the company was previously known as Globarena and asked why it had been awarded the CBSE contract and whether any rules or procedures had been bypassed in the process. Rahul also questioned whether CBSE was aware of past controversies involving the company and sought clarity on any links between the company’s management and the Modi government. CBSE rejects allegations CBSE rejected Rahul’s allegations, stating that all General Financial Rules and prescribed procedures were followed while awarding the contract to COEMPT Edutech. The board said the allegations were incorrect, misleading and not based on facts. According to CBSE, the digital evaluation system improves the speed and accuracy of assessment and reduces errors in mark tabulation and data entry. However, after the results were declared, students reported issues such as server outages, failed payments and blurred answer-sheet pages. Allegations against COEMPT in Telangana exams COEMPT Edutech, based in Hyderabad, provides digital evaluation services in states such as Telangana, Karnataka and West Bengal. In 2019, the company was known as Globarena Technologies Private Limited. That year, it faced allegations of data-processing irregularities in Telangana’s Class 12 board examinations. More than three lakh students reportedly failed out of approximately 9.74 lakh candidates who appeared for the examinations.