Sarthak Sidhant appears before parliamentary committee to presents findings on CBSE's OSM system
New Delhi, June 2
Sarthak Sidhant, a Class 12 student affected by the Central Board of Secondary Education's On-Screen Marking system, appeared before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports on Tuesday to present his findings regarding the implementation of the system and alleged irregularities in the OSM tendering process.
According to sources, Sidhant is giving a presentation before the committee at the Parliament House Annexe, where members are reviewing the use of OSM in CBSE Class 12 examinations and concerns raised by students regarding evaluation and transparency.
Ahead of the meeting, Sidhant alleged that a comparison of multiple CBSE tender documents revealed several discrepancies that, according to him, appeared to favour a particular service provider.
Speaking to ANI, he said, "There were many discrepancies. I have just compared them. There were at least 15 discrepancies as per my blog. I would like to highlight three or four of them."
Sidhant pointed to changes in the tender conditions governing the OSM system. He claimed that clauses relating to poor performance, blacklisting, financial qualification limits, CMMI levels and project eligibility criteria were altered across successive tenders.
"The first discrepancy is that in the old tender, there were three clauses of poor performance, that the service provider would be disqualified if they have poor performance. But in the new RFP, it was totally wiped out," he alleged.
The student said his research was undertaken in collaboration with ethical hacker Nisarg Adhikari and journalists investigating the issue. He expressed hope that the matter would lead to greater transparency in public procurement and educational evaluation systems.
Sidhant also clarified that he was not opposed to the OSM system itself but believed it required more extensive testing before implementation. "I think OSM is a good change, but there should be wide rollouts first and good demo pilots," he said.
The parliamentary panel is also reviewing the implementation of the three-language formula in Classes 9 and 10.
— ANI
Reader Comments
I appreciate Sarthak's efforts but honestly, the OSM system has made things worse for us students. The scores don't reflect actual performance and now hearing about tender irregularities just adds to the distrust. Why can't they go back to the old physical evaluation method which was more transparent? 🤔
A student exposing discrepancies in government tenders? This is next-level stuff. The fact that clauses about poor performance and blacklisting were removed from the new tender is deeply concerning. Either someone is trying to favour a specific vendor or they're just incompetent. Either way, heads should roll at CBSE.
While I support transparency, as an educator I think OSM has potential if implemented properly. Sarthak's point about needing more pilot testing before full rollout makes a lot of sense. But we also need to ensure the committee doesn't use this to simply postpone necessary reforms. Balance is key here.
Finally some accountability! For too long CBSE has been acting like a law unto itself. The way they handled the 12th board results last year was a complete mess. Now this student shows more competence than the entire board. Shame on the adults who let this happen. Sarthak, you are a true hero! 🇮🇳
As someone working in procurement, I can tell you that altering tender conditions between successive bids is a huge red flag. Removing clauses about poor performance and blacklisting? That's like giving a blank cheque to a contractor. This kid has done more due diligence than most government auditors
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