Congress asks PM Modi to fix accountability for CBSE portal glitches, evaluation lapses

New Delhi: The Congress on Monday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to stop shielding “failure” and “fix accountability” for the discrepancies exposed by aggrieved Class 12 students in CBSE’s On-screen Marking system.

Pawan Khera, Chairman, Media and Publicity (Communications Department), AICC, said in a statement that the PM Modi-led government stands exposed by its disastrous record on education.

“Twelve years of blatant misrule and relentless propaganda have eaten away at the foundations of India’s education system. CBSE compromised, UGC destroyed, scientific temper diminished, NCERT Textbook coloured, VCs appointed by RSS, any student protests bulldozed, Rights of SC-ST-OBC-EWS-minority youth snatched, Unemployment at its peak and persistent cuts in education budget — is the story of India’s youth under BJP,” said Khera.

He said Dharmendra Pradhan must resign immediately as Union Education Minister for presiding over one of the biggest institutional failures in India’s education history.

Khera described the CBSE revaluation portal’s glitches and technical mistakes like blurred answer sheets, missing pages and incomplete digitisation of Class 12 students’ answer sheets as a big institutional failure.

The Congress leader also posed several questions to the Prime Minister.

Why did CBSE ignore internal warnings from teachers and experts about 36 major flaws in the digital evaluation system and recklessly impose it on 18.5 lakh students within weeks?

He also asked, “Who ordered the dilution of CBSE tender norms by reducing scan quality standards, removing mandatory robotic scanners and weakening cybersecurity safeguards before awarding the contract?”

Rising doubts over the contract awarded by the CBSE to the vendor, Khera questioned why the technical eligibility rules repeatedly changed until a particular vendor became eligible, and what explains the alleged proximity between the contractor and individuals linked to the BJP ecosystem?

Targeting the COEMPT company, which was given the contract for scanning answer sheets by the CBSE, Khera asked, “Why was it preferred over TCS, despite a shady track record and a name change? Why was the CBSE OSM contract handed to COEMPT – a company already mired in controversy under its old name, Globarena? On whose orders was it done? Why were no background checks done? What is the connection between COEMPT’s management and the Modi government?”

Khera said after destroying the credibility of exams from NEET and UGC NET to CUET and CBSE, hollowing out UGC funding, shutting schools and pushing India’s education system into chaos, will PM Modi finally fix accountability or continue shielding failure?

IANS