From Ranchi to Parliament, a teen poses tough questions to CBSE

After making public irregularities in the Central Board of Secondary Education’s (CBSE) tendering process related to On Screen Marking (OSM) system for class 12 board examination evaluations, Sarthak Sidhant from Ranchi made a presentation before a Parliamentary panel on Tuesday on the issue. The 17-year-old was specially flown in to New Delhi present his findings before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth, and Sports.

Interestingly, CBSE officials present at the meeting were unaware that Sarthak would appear before the committee. He reached the Parliament House complex accompanied by his parents and brother. He had claimed he found alleged irregularities in the CBSE giving a contract to Coempt Edu Teck Pvt Ltd for handling the scanning and digital evaluation of answer sheets. Sarthak’s presentation was made in the presence of CBSE Chairman Rahul Singh and Secretary, School Education, Sanjay Kumar, along with other officials of the Ministry of Education and the board.

Sarthak alleged that a comparison of multiple CBSE tender documents revealed several discrepancies that, according to him, appeared to favour a particular service provider. The student told the panel he did the research in collaboration with ethical hacker Nisarg Adhikari and journalists investigating the issue.

He also presented a seven-page copy of his findings before the Parliamentary Committee chaired by Congress MP Digvijaya Singh, who heard him patiently and demanded answers from CBSE officials.

Sources said Sarthak systematically presented his arguments to the members, highlighting various discrepancies from the misrepresented financial criteria, the failure to disclose its blacklisted earlier status to the fact that the company’s previous avatar, Globarena, had worked for the Telangana Education Board. The CBSE is scheduled to give its responses to the questions raised by Sarthak in the committee’s next meeting.

Sources said the committee members demanded that the CBSE identify those responsible for the events that transpired and the disciplinary action taken against them, emphasising that accountability must be ensured following such incidents.

The CBSE too handed over a report to the panel members, presenting their side on the problems faced by students, and assured the MPs that the glitches that appeared on its portal have since been rectified and students now have time till June 6 to apply for re-evaluation of their answer-sheets.

Amid a row over the CBSE’s on-screen marking system, the committee had summoned top officials of the board and the Ministry of School Education to discuss the issue of using the online marking system (OSM) in the Class-12 exams and the problems faced by students consequently. The panel also discussed applying the three-language formula in Classes 9 and 10 with the education ministry officials.