CBSE Transfers Chairman and Secretary After Glitches in New Digital Marking System for 2026 Exams

India’s Central Board of Secondary Education transferred its chairman and secretary to other departments on Tuesday after students reported errors in answer sheets evaluated under a new digital system. The board introduced the On-Screen Marking system for the 2026 exams. Answer sheets were scanned and uploaded for electronic evaluation.

The system drew criticism for blurry scans, technical glitches, server outages and delayed fixes. CBSE awarded the contract to Coempt Edu Teck of Hyderabad after two bidding rounds produced no offers. In August 2025 the board lowered requirements on image quality and penalties for errors.

The company was previously named Globarena Technologies Private Limited. In April 2019 at least 20 students died by suicide after roughly 40 percent of examinees failed an exam in Telangana state whose answer sheets were digitized by Globarena Technologies. Nandini Singh, a student in Dehradun, received a lower-than-expected chemistry score when results were released on May 13.

The window to request a review closed before she could apply. “They are liars and a corrupt bunch of people taking our lives, our future hostage,” she told Al Jazeera. Vedant Srivastava posted on X that the scanned sheet CBSE provided was not his and showed different handwriting.

The post was reshared more than 13,000 times. CBSE later sent his original paper for manual checking and updated his result. Sarthak Sidhant, an 18-year-old graduate in Ranchi, published a blog detailing the contract with Coempt Edu Teck.

Nisarga Adhikary, a 19-year-old in Bengaluru, reported portal vulnerabilities to CBSE in February, including the ability to log in as an examiner and edit marks. He posted the findings on social media after most issues remained unresolved following the May results. He also noted that the master password could be compromised for unrestricted access.

CBSE is affiliated with more than 30,000 schools. 7 million students sat the 2026 exams. Rahul Gandhi called the transfers a “cover-up” and said “the real culprit”, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, was “spared”.

He demanded that the minister be dismissed and an independent inquiry held. Jairam Ramesh said the moves were “an attempt to deflect attention by holding bureaucrats accountable instead of the political leadership”. Arvind Kejriwal said the transfers had “sprinkled salt on the wounds of millions of children and their parents” and signaled that “the education minister will not be changed, do whatever you have to”.

A television anchor on the state-run Doordarshan channel accused one student who reported discrepancies of being a “Pakistani” before issuing a partial apology after CBSE confirmed the error. For days after results were published the board’s reevaluation website remained inaccessible, preventing some students from requesting reviews.