New Delhi, March 3: A critical mock drill designed to familiarize teachers with CBSE’s new digital evaluation portal witnessed significant disruption this week. The exercise, which is a precursor to the mandatory implementation of On-Screen Marking (OSM) in 2026, was interrupted by delayed OTPs and server-side errors that prevented hundreds of examiners from accessing scanned answer scripts.
Under the proposed OSM framework, each evaluator is expected to grade approximately 20 answer sheets on a computer. The board asserted in a “Very Important” communique that these live practice sessions are essential for training. Despite this, teachers from Ludhiana, Jalandhar, and Amritsar declared that the server could not handle the traffic, leading to a “chaotic” experience.
CBSE Regional Officer Sanjay Bisht maintained that the matter falls outside his immediate jurisdiction, while the board’s media and public relations department has yet to issue a formal response to the reported failures.
“Some issues were faced by schools regarding login, logout and on-screen marking,” declared Harpreet Kaur, a city coordinator for the board. She affirmed that the feedback from various institutions has been compiled to ensure the board is aware of the technical gaps. Despite the glitches, proponents of the system asserted that digital evaluation will eventually improve transparency and eliminate the need for examiners to travel to evaluation centers.
