NEW DELHI: What was meant to be a routine re-evaluation process spiraled into a major controversy, with students alleging that the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) website was hacked or compromised, causing fees for answer sheet photocopies to fluctuate wildly within hours.
As per official norms, students are charged Rs 100 per subject to access photocopies of their evaluated answer sheets. However, on the fourth day of the application window, users began reporting discrepancies. Screenshots shared widely on social media showed the same service being priced at Rs 8,000, then jumping to Rs 67,000, and even bizarre figures like Rs 69,420 per subject.
One student wrote online, “Last night it was Re 1, then Rs 69, and now Rs 69,420, CBSE your site was hacked, students were scammed.”
Parents echoed the concern, sharing proof of total fees running into lakhs for just a handful of subjects.
The CBSE however did not respond to any of the queries raised by the students and their parents. They did not even issue any clarification nor acknowledge a glitch, nor confirm a possible cyber attack.
However, the CBSE Secretary Himanshu Gupta on Friday late afternoon shared yet another circular announcing that the dates to fill re-evaluation forms have been extended for one more day, from May 23 to May 24.
This was the second time; CBSE had to extend the dates, owing to the technical glitches faced by the students since May 19.
“The CBSE has been facing unprecedented traffic since the past few days and has also faced several attempts of unauthorised interference, which has made it prone to disruptions. Hence, in an attempt to ensure that no student is left behind, the board is extending the last date for obtaining scanned photocopy of answer books of class 12 board examinations,” read the CBSE circular dated May 22.
It further read, “It is also informed that students will have up to two days after receiving the scanned copy of their answer book for applying for the next step of verification of Issues Observed/ Re-evaluation.”
The sudden and erratic changes led many to suspect a serious security breach or backend failure. A lot of parents and students, who were unaware of the glitch, proceeded with payments at inflated rates and were found struggling to get refunded.
Meanwhile students on Friday continued to suffer because of the technical glitches in the website as when the students tried opening the site, it said, “Site is under maintenance and will be available soon”.