The controversy surrounding the Central Board of Secondary Education’s (CBSE) new on-screen marking (OSM) system has deepened after an ethical hacker disputed the board’s claim that the portal he accessed contained only test data, while education experts remained divided over the effectiveness of digital evaluation.
The debate comes amid widespread complaints over this year’s CBSE Class 12 board results, with many students claiming their scores were significantly lower than expected and questioning the reliability of the newly introduced digital assessment process.
Nisarga Adhikary, a 19-year-old ethical hacker who identifies himself as ‘Nisarga’, told CNBC-TV18 that he first discovered vulnerabilities in the system in February and formally reported them to the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In).
According to Adhikary, CERT-In sought additional details before acknowledging the vulnerabilities and escalating the matter to relevant authorities.
“Initially, on February 25, I discovered the vulnerabilities for the first time,” Adhikary said. He added that after submitting detailed reports and screen recordings, the portal was taken offline for three days.
Adhikary claimed that although several vulnerabilities were addressed, some remained unresolved. He said he repeatedly attempted to contact CBSE but received no response.
The hacker strongly rejected CBSE’s clarification that the portal involved was merely a testing site carrying sample information.
“When I accessed the portal for the first time, I hijacked an examiner’s account, and that person was a real teacher at a real school,” he said, adding that he had documented evidence and that the individual’s details matched a school faculty directory.
“I was able to access production data, and I am confident about that. It was not a test URL. There was real personal data on it,” Adhikary said.
He also questioned inconsistencies in CBSE’s public communication on the matter, claiming that an earlier statement referred to a web domain that did not exist.
CBSE has denied that the examination system was compromised and maintained that the portal identified by the hacker was a testing environment containing only sample data.
The cyber security claims have emerged alongside criticism of the broader digital evaluation system introduced this year. Under the OSM model, answer sheets are scanned, uploaded to an online platform and assessed digitally by teachers, with marks calculated electronically.
Former CBSE Governing Body member Jyoti Gupta defended the system and said it had undergone extensive testing before nationwide deployment.
Gupta said CBSE had conducted pilots beginning in 2014 and that the technology had significantly evolved since then. She added that up to 30 lakh answer sheets had been scanned during trial phases and that the latest pilot involved five schools, observers and continuous feedback.
According to Gupta, evaluators and principals underwent structured training and standard operating procedures were finalised before the correction process began.
“It was a complete and clearly defined process. All SOPs were in place before corrections began,” she said.
Gupta dismissed concerns that digital marking reduced the quality of assessment, arguing that teachers, not machines, remained responsible for evaluation.
“Seeing a physical copy and correcting it manually with a pen, and correcting it on a screen, did not involve much difference,” she said. “The screen was in front of the evaluator, and instead of a pen, there was a mouse and keyboard.”
She also said unclear or blurred copies were not evaluated digitally and were either rescanned or manually checked. Around 13,000 papers, she noted, were evaluated offline because they could not be scanned properly.
Gupta further argued that digital evaluation reflected the direction in which global education systems were moving.
“We have to embrace digital systems,” she said, pointing to international boards such as Cambridge and IB that use digital evaluation across multiple countries.
However, Anita Rampal, Professor at Delhi University, raised concerns over whether digital systems could adequately preserve the professional judgement involved in assessment.
Rampal said the debate should not be limited to technical pilots or operational readiness but should focus on the nature of evaluation itself.
“My concern is about the fairness of assessment and the professional role of an assessor,” she said.
She argued that evaluation is not a purely mechanical process and involves interpretation, reflection and academic judgement.
“Anyone who evaluates knows this. It is not simply scrolling down a screen and assigning marks,” Rampal said.
According to her, teachers she spoke to reported difficulties with the system and felt pressured by monitoring during the evaluation process, with some centres allegedly receiving calls regarding the speed of marking.
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The sharp differences between supporters and critics of OSM come at a time when student dissatisfaction has intensified. Following the declaration of Class 12 results, several students alleged that scanned answer sheets did not match their handwriting, some pages were blurred, answers were left unchecked and marks were incorrectly totalled. Complaints regarding technical glitches and payment issues during re-evaluation also surfaced.
The controversy escalated further after Adhikary alleged weaknesses in OTP verification and examiner authentication, claiming the system could potentially allow impersonation and score manipulation.
The growing scrutiny has prompted intervention from Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who has sought a detailed report from CBSE on the technical failures. The minister has also asked authorities to explain the reasons behind the problems and directed a team from IIT to assist the board in addressing the issues.
As the debate over cyber security and digital evaluation continues, the CBSE’s OSM system now faces questions not only over technical robustness but also over whether digital assessment can command the same confidence as traditional methods.
