NEW DELHI, June 2: The government on Tuesday removed two top CBSE officials following alleged irregularities in the Class 12 digital evaluation system and ordered a probe by a high-powered committee to investigate how the national educational board procured these marking services.
Simultaneously, a 17-year-old student from Jharkhand affected by the CBSE’s online marking system, appeared before a parliamentary panel where he pointed out the anomalies in the tendering process of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to select venders for online marking and put forth a set of questions for the board.
Sarthak Sidhant, who himself appeared in the board examination, presented a seven-page copy of his findings before the Parliamentary Committee for Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports, chaired by Congress MP Digvijaya Singh.
The CBSE, meanwhile, said “malicious actors” attempted to disrupt services on its re-evaluation portal through a barrage of cyberattacks, including a denial-of-service attack that caused 1.5 million hits on the platform within two minutes and more than one lakh attempts at unauthorised file access.
The CBSE engulfed into a controversy after some class 12 students alleged that the scanned copies of their answer sheets uploaded by the board did not match their handwriting, raising concerns over possible answer-sheet mismatch in the On-Screen Marking (OSM) system.
An official said CBSE chairman Rahul Singh and Secretary Himanshu Gupta have been transferred.
Subsequently, the Cabinet Secretariat through a memorandum announced constitution of a one-member committee to inquire into matters relating to the procurement of services for the on-screen marking system by the CBSE.
COVER UP EXERCISE, SAYS RAHUL GANDHI
Soon after the government shunted out two top CBSE officials following the online marking row, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday termed it a “cover up” exercise saying while officials have been removed the education minister has been spared.
The leader of opposition in Lok Sabha demanded that Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan should be dismissed and an independent judicial inquiry be ordered immediately.
In a post in Hindi on X, Gandhi said if the prime minister had cared for about 18.5 lakh students who appeared in the CBSE class 12 exam, then Pradhan would have been removed long ago.
“CBSE Chairman – Transferred. CBSE Secretary – Transferred. A one-member ‘inquiry’ committee – Formed. And the real culprit, Dharmendra Pradhan – Safe.
“Officials removed. Minister spared. This isn’t accountability-it’s a cover-up,” the Congress leader said in his post.“Our demand remains the same today: Dismiss the Education Minister and conduct an independent judicial inquiry – these aren’t some one-month-old internal file of the Modi government to be brushed aside just like that.“If the Prime Minister cared for about the 18.5 lakh CBSE students – Dharmendra Pradhan ji would have been removed long ago,” Gandhi said. (PTI)
