CBSE On-Screen Marking System Under Fire: Tech Vendor Penalized After Security Flaws and Evaluation Blunders

New Delhi. Monday, 1 June 2026

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has officially initiated strict contractual penalization against Hyderabad-based ed-tech vendor Coempt Edu Teck (formerly known as Globarena Technologies). The decision comes after a tumultuous 2026 Class 12 result cycle marked by public outcry, massive portal malfunctions, data vulnerabilities, and errors in student script evaluation.

The vendor, responsible for executing the board’s newly scaled Online Screen Marking (OSM) system, faces heavy compounding financial fines for severe Service Level Agreement (SLA) breaches, though internal revisions will likely protect the company from complete blacklisting.

The Genesis of the 2026 OSM Controversy

For the 2026 examination cycle, the CBSE completely overhauled its assessment model by digitizing nearly 9.86 million physical Class 12 answer scripts. Over 77,000 remotely located evaluators were tasked with grading these papers using Coempt Edu Teck’s software framework. The board championed this transition as a fool-proof way to enhance processing speeds, eliminate errors in totaling, and secure data handling.

However, once results were published, the national pass percentage plummeted to 85.20%—the lowest in seven years. Frustrated students taking to social media platforms exposed deep-rooted flaws in the platform’s performance.

• Handwriting Mismatches: Students requesting photocopies of their checked answer sheets discovered completely different handwritings tagged under their personal roll numbers.

• Legibility Lapses: Countless pages were scanned at resolutions so poor that text was virtually illegible, yet evaluators had placed red ticks and arbitrary grades across the blanks.

• Severe Security Flaws: Independent teenage tech-enthusiasts and ethical hackers discovered exposed frontend source code on public platforms like GitHub. They flagged a major structural flaw—a master password left in the portal’s frontend code that allowed anyone to skip One-Time Password (OTP) verification and tap directly into the administrative evaluation dashboard.

Inside the August 2025 Tender: Strict Financial Penalty Clauses

Following intense pressure from parents, student wings, and political leaders, the CBSE reviewed its underlying SLA frameworks outlined in the project tender originally issued on August 28, 2025.

To maintain the absolute integrity of its system, CBSE has implemented the following layered financial penalties directly linked to operational delay and technical error:

The Blacklisting Loophole

While the financial penalties remain severe, updates to the contract rules have shifted the outcome. Although the original August 2025 tender guidelines allowed a CBSE-appointed committee to completely blacklist a vendor for repeating “Other Mistakes” (such as missing scanned pages or minor data discrepancies), a critical corrigendum passed on September 20, 2025, altered this clause. The updated framework explicitly removed the word “Blacklisting,” meaning Coempt Edu Teck faces severe financial forfeiture and possible eventual termination of the contract, but will escape an outright industry ban.

Rectifications, IIT Interventions, and Next Steps

The Union Ministry of Education has publicly acknowledged the immense stress placed on candidates. In a swift damage-control move, technical experts and firefighter engineering teams from IIT Kanpur and IIT Madras have been officially deployed to evaluate the system’s health. They are analyzing whether the portal failures were driven by code deployment flaws, poor hosting infrastructure, or external cyber interventions.

To mitigate student losses, the CBSE slashed post-result service fees down to a flat baseline (such as ₹100 for digital copies) and promised absolute refunds if re-evaluation uncovers calculation deficits. The board also clarified that it has held back all financial disbursements to Coempt Edu Teck, stating that exact penalty evaluations will be finalized only after the conclusion of subsequent supplementary exams.

External Verified References

For deeper investigative details and real-time updates regarding this national examination reform issue, you can check localized coverage through regional digital chronicles:

• To explore broader regional educational administrative shifts and adjacent news summaries, visit Matribhumi Samachar English.