"We were gagged first, now there is pressure to defend it”: Inside CBSE’s OSM crisis

CBSE’s On-Screen Marking (OSM) controversy has exposed growing distrust within India’s examination system, with teachers alleging they were effectively “gagged” through a March 16 advisory warning against sharing evaluation-related experiences online. Evaluators claim they faced blurry scans, missing supplementary pages, server failures and marking difficulties during Class 12 assessments but feared disciplinary action if they raised concerns publicly. The controversy has now deepened further amid allegations that schools and educators were later informally encouraged to publicly defend the OSM system as criticism intensified nationwide.