‘On Screen Marking’ an international norm, says Education Ministry amid concerns over CBSE Class 12 results

Days after the CBSE Class 12 results were declared, the Ministry of Education in a statement on Sunday, May 17, 2026, said that ‘On-Screen Marking’ (OSM) is an internationally accepted norm that allows for “transparent evaluation”.

The statement came amid concerns that the OSM assessment was a reason for lower scores.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Wednesday, May 13, 2026, published the Class 12 board examination results, which recorded a slight decline in the overall pass percentage in 2026 compared to last year. The national pass percentage was 85.20%, a decrease of 3.19% compared to 88.39% last year.

“Around 98 lakh pages have been scanned for CBSE class 12 with three security levels,” the statement said.

The ministry also announced that the revaluation cost of answer sheets has also been reduced from ₹700 and ₹500 to ₹100 respectively. “Students will have the option of reassessment,” said Sanjay Kumar, Secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSEL).

A total of 17,68,968 students appeared for the CBSE board exams for Class 12. More than 94,000 students scored above 90% and more than 17,000 candidates scored above 95%.

Among the districts, Trivandrum tops the charts with a staggering pass rate of 95.62%, followed by Chennai and Bengaluru. Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh has the lowest pass percentage at 72.43%.

With PTI inputs