TNI Bureau: Amid the controversy surrounding the Central Board of Secondary Education’s (CBSE) On-Screen Marking (OSM) system, the Centre on Tuesday transferred CBSE Chairman Rahul Singh and Secretary Himanshu Gupta, while simultaneously ordering a probe into the implementation of the digital evaluation process.

Soon after the transfers, the government appointed Lokhande Prashant Sitaram as the new Chairperson of CBSE and Varun Bharadwaj as the Board’s new Secretary. Rahul Singh has been posted as Additional Secretary in the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. Himanshu Gupta has been repatriated to his parent cadre in the Ministry of Home Affairs with an “extended cooling-off” condition, making him ineligible for another central deputation until December 2030.

The Centre has also constituted a one-member committee to examine issues related to the procurement of services for the On-Screen Marking System. The inquiry will be headed by S. Radha Chauhan, Chairperson of the Capacity Building Commission.

The controversy erupted after CBSE introduced a fully digital On-Screen Marking system for Class 12 answer-sheet evaluation this year. Several students complained of blurred scanned copies of answer books, missing pages, and, in some cases, being shown another student’s answer script.

The digital evaluation process also faced technical glitches when many students applying for copies of their answer sheets reportedly encountered problems while making online payments. Following the complaints, experts from IITs and IIMs have been brought in to help address the issues and strengthen the system.