17-year-old Sarthak Sidhant appears before parliamentary panel over CBSE OSM concerns

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education reviewed concerns around the Central Board of Secondary Education's (CBSE) On-Screen Marking (OSM) system on Tuesday, hearing a presentation from Class 12 student Sarthak Sidhant, whose allegations about evaluation errors and tender changes have fuelled a national debate.Seventeen-year-old Sidhant, one of the students affected by the digital evaluation system, appeared before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports to present his findings on the rollout of OSM and alleged irregularities in the tendering process.The meeting, held at the Parliament House Annexe, comes weeks after complaints from students triggered a controversy around CBSE's transition to digital evaluation for Class 12 board examinations.The committee reviewed both the functioning of the OSM system and concerns raised by students regarding transparency and evaluation. The panel is chaired by Congress MP Digvijaya Singh.Sidhant first came into public focus after questioning discrepancies between physical and digital versions of answer sheets evaluated under the OSM system. Since then, he has published a detailed analysis of procurement documents related to the digital evaluation platform.Ahead of Tuesday's meeting, Sidhant told ANI that his review of CBSE tender documents revealed multiple changes across successive rounds of bidding."There were many discrepancies. I have just compared them. There were at least 15 discrepancies as per my blog. I would like to highlight three or four of them," he said.According to ANI, Sidhant argued that several eligibility and qualification criteria in the tenders were altered over time."The first discrepancy is that in the old tender, there were three clauses of poor performance, that the service provider would be disqualified if they have poor performance. But in the new RFP, it was totally wiped out," he alleged.He also pointed to changes in clauses related to blacklisting, financial qualification requirements, Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) certification levels and project eligibility criteria.Sidhant's findings stem from his examination of documents available on the Central Public Procurement Portal.In his blog, he alleged that eligibility and technical requirements were modified across three rounds of tendering in ways that benefited Coempt EduTeck, the company linked to the OSM system. He also questioned changes to blacklisting provisions."There was a clause called 'blacklisted earlier' whereas in the new RFP, it was changed to 'blacklisted currently'. Why would the board want a service provider which was blacklisted earlier?" he told ANI before the committee meeting.The student said his research was conducted with the support of ethical hacker Nisarg Adhikari and journalists investigating the issue.At the same time, Sidhant maintained that his objections were not directed at digital evaluation itself."I think OSM is a good change, but there should be wide rollouts first and good demo pilots," he said.Following the presentation, committee chairperson Digvijaya Singh indicated that the panel would now consider CBSE's response."He has made his presentation. It is for the committee to decide on the replies given by the CBSE," Singh told ANI.The committee, which includes 21 members from the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha, does not have direct executive powers to penalise officials. However, it can summon senior officials, seek documents and records, and scrutinise the functioning of public institutions.Officials from the Department of School Education under the Ministry of Education and senior CBSE representatives were also heard by the panel, according to reports.The parliamentary hearing marks the latest stage in a controversy that has steadily grown since CBSE declared Class 12 results this year.What started as student complaints about evaluation under the OSM system expanded into questions about procurement, transparency and oversight. The issue has also drawn political attention.Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi recently used Sidhant's findings while demanding an independent inquiry into the matter.For now, however, the focus is on the parliamentary committee and CBSE's response. The questions before the panel are no longer limited to whether students were affected by technical problems during evaluation. They also concern how the system was procured, whether safeguards were diluted during the tendering process, and what accountability mechanisms exist when concerns are raised after results are declared.