Senior IAS officer Lokhande Prashant Sitaram appointed new CBSE chairman amid OSM row

NEW DELHI: The government on Tuesday appointed senior IAS officers Lokhande Prashant Sitaram and Varun Bhardwaj as the new chairperson and secretary of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), respectively, amid a major row over the board's new On-Screen Marking (OSM) system.



Lokhande Prashant Sitaram will succeed Rahul Singh, while Bhardwaj will take over from Himanshu Gupta. Their appointments were announced hours after the government ordered the transfers of both Singh and Gupta.

While the new CBSE chief is currently serving as Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the new secretary is already posted in the Ministry of Education as a Director.

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Meanwhile, Singh has been transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture as an Additional Secretary. Gupta, on the other hand, has been prematurely repatriated and sent back to his parent cadre (MHA) on "administrative grounds" with an "extended cooling off" period, and will be ineligible for another central deputation before December 12, 2030.

In addition, the government has constituted a one-member inquiry commission headed by S. Radha Chauhan, Chairperson of the Capacity Building Commission, to examine matters related to the procurement of services for the On-Screen Marking (OSM) system by CBSE. Chauhan has been empowered to seek assistance from officers of other departments, as required for the inquiry.

The commission has been directed to submit its report to the Department of Personnel and Training within one month.

The developments come at a time when CBSE continues to face mounting pressure following reports of technical failures in its post-result portal and discrepancies in the OSM-evaluated answer sheets.

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On Tuesday, the board also launched a re-verification portal to address cybersecurity concerns surrounding the OnMark portal operated by its Hyderabad-based service provider. The platform went live a day after its scheduled launch.

The portal will remain open until midnight on Saturday. CBSE has fixed the fee at Rs 100 per answer book for verification of scanned copies and Rs 25 per question for re-evaluation. Payments will be accepted only through online modes, including UPI, credit card, debit card, or net banking, to ensure a fully digital process.

Earlier in the day, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports chairman Digvijaya Singh said the panel would consider concerns raised by students regarding the OSM system after a presentation by Class 12 student Sarthak Sidhant, who played a key role in highlighting the discrepancies.

The committee is currently examining the implementation of the OSM system in CBSE Class 12 examinations, along with concerns related to evaluation practices and transparency in assessment.

(With ANI inputs)