CBSE OSM Controversy: Technician Alleges Software Failures, Massive Backlog In Answer Sheet Scanning

CBSE OSM controversy deepens after a technician alleged software crashes, scanning backlog and answer sheet verification issues.

CBSE OSM Row: Technician Alleges Scanning Software And Backlog Issues

Source : ANI

Fresh allegations have surfaced in the ongoing controversy surrounding CBSE’s On Screen Marking (OSM) system after a technician associated with answer sheet scanning spoke about alleged technical flaws and operational issues during a conversation with ABP NEWS. 

The claims come as several Class 12 students continue to report problems while trying to access scanned answer sheets under the verification process. On the second day of the verification window, many students complained that the CBSE portal stopped functioning midway through the application process, while payment gateways also reportedly faced disruptions. 

One student claimed the portal was working normally until around 7:20 Am. However, technical glitches reportedly started appearing after 8 am, and fee transactions became difficult after 8:30 am. 

Technician Questions Software Used In OSM Process 

In the phone conversation, the technician alleged that the software used for scanning answer sheets was “very basic” and frequently suffered from lagging and crashing issues. 

“This software is so basic that even a child could build something better. There is no optimisation. The software used to lag and crash repeatedly. It was not developed properly. 

According to the technician, if a scanned answer sheet failed to upload properly, the entire copy had to be scanned again because previously stored data would get deleted. 

“If the entire answer sheet was scanned but failed to upload, we had to scan the whole copy again.” 

He further claimed that due to the growing backlog, some answer sheets may never have reached the scanning stage. 

“Papers kept coming in, and the backlog kept increasing.” 

Claims Of Long Shifts And Huge Backlogs 

The technician stated that scanning work at his centre continued from February 22 to April 12. He claimed workers were handling long shifts daily and were paid around Rs 2 per scanned copy. 

“We used to earn around Rs 1,000 a day. Even now, the payment has not been cleared.” 

Describing the work schedule, he said: 

“Work used to continue from 9 am to 6 pm and then again from 8 pm to 11 pm. There were no holidays.” 

According to him, one individual scanned nearly 500 answer sheets every day, while overtime workers sometimes handled up to 700 copies daily. 

“Each page took only a few seconds to scan.” 

The technician also alleged that if a single answer sheet in a bundle contained torn pages or cheating material, the entire bundle was moved to pending status. 

“If even one student at your centre was caught cheating, the entire bundle went into pending status. That bundle could contain 100 answer sheets.” 

Concerns Raised Over Quality Check And Hardware 

The technician also questioned the quality-check mechanism used during scanning. He alleged that blurred answer sheets were sometimes forwarded despite visibility concerns.  

“When a copy was rejected during quality check, it was sent to the server to verify whether the rejection reason was valid or not.”, he added. 

He further claimed that technical software problems led to automatic rejection of several answer sheets. 

“Such answer sheets never moved forward in the process.” 

Speaking about the infrastructure, the technician said scanning centres used Logitech webcams and low-processor computer systems, which reportedly created hardware-related problems. “Some systems had Windows 10 while others had Windows 11. Most of the issues were related to hardware because the processors were weak.” 

According to him, most of the scanning staff were freelancers and many had not completed graduation. 

“Some were studying AI, while others were pursuing BCA, BTech or BCom. Most of us were not graduates. We worked part-time.”