VSN Raju, CEO of Coempt EduTeck, has strongly defended the Central Board of Secondary Education's (CBSE) on-screen marking (OSM) system, asserting that recent complaints from students are isolated incidents rather than widespread systemic failures. Raju stated that the "entire application had run successfully" and dismissed allegations of a fundamentally flawed system as "absolutely a wrong allegation."
Student Complaints Trigger Controversy
The controversy erupted after numerous students reported significant issues scrutinizing their answer sheets post-results. These complaints included blurred scans, missing pages, incorrect sequencing of answers, and even complete mismatches where students received answer sheets belonging to others. One notable case involved Vedant Shrivastava, who confirmed receiving an incorrect answer sheet.
Company Investigates Isolated Incidents
While acknowledging specific complaints, Raju emphasized that the issues pertained to "only one or two cases" and were being actively investigated. Regarding the mixed-up answer sheets, he noted, "We have identified the location, who had done the scanning, and 100%, we identified that technologically there is no error. We are currently investigating." The company aims to understand how these errors occurred to prevent future recurrences.
Addressing claims by an ethical hacker who alleged to have exposed security flaws, Raju clarified that the server reportedly "hacked" was a test environment used solely for internal purposes and never deployed for client operations.
Scale of Coempt EduTeck's Operations
Coempt EduTeck highlighted its extensive experience, stating it handles approximately 2 crore (20 million) answer booklets annually for over 40 clients. Raju also mentioned that a dry run evaluation involved up to 40,000 faculty members coming online, suggesting the system's robust capacity.
Political Scrutiny and Demands for Inquiry
The controversy has drawn political attention, with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accusing the CBSE of "massive irregularities" in its results. Gandhi questioned the contract awarding process and demanded an independent judicial inquiry and the formation of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the matter. He also linked Coempt to past controversies in Telangana and alleged that errors in the OSM system contributed to student suicides in that state.