India’s education system has come under intense scrutiny following the emergence of cybersecurity vulnerabilities in a key online marking platform and wider irregularities affecting national examinations.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has acknowledged weaknesses in its OnMark portal, a digital system introduced to scan and evaluate examination answer scripts online.

The issue was first highlighted by a teenage cybersecurity researcher, who identified multiple vulnerabilities that could potentially have allowed unauthorised access to examiner accounts and manipulation of marks.

CBSE stated that it has been monitoring the reported issues and claims the vulnerabilities have now been contained, while continuing to assess whether any further risks remain.

The controversy comes amid complaints from students that scanned copies of their answer sheets did not always match the physical originals during re-evaluation requests.This has raised concerns among hundreds of thousands of candidates, with over 400,000 requesting scanned copies and around 1.1 million seeking access to physical scripts.Approximately 1.8 million students took the school-leaving examinations this year.

The situation has added pressure on India’s education ministry, already facing criticism after the cancellation of a national medical entrance exam due to alleged question paper leaks affecting millions of candidates.Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has promised corrective action and accountability, stating that irregularities will be thoroughly investigated.He has also acknowledged responsibility for issues linked to the rollout of the new examination process.

Opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, have called for the minister’s resignation and demanded a court-supervised inquiry into the outsourcing of the digital grading system.

The government has also faced scrutiny over its handling of exam security, including the use of extraordinary measures such as air force assistance to transport examination materials securely.The series of incidents has fuelled a broader debate over trust, transparency, and technological readiness in India’s high-stakes examination system.