India exam board faces backlash after 400,000 students request answer sheets

More than 400,000 students have requested copies of their exam papers and answer sheets after widespread reports of marking errors in India's grade 12 exams.

The Central Board of Secondary Education says it has received 1.1 million requests from students seeking to verify their results. At least 1.7 million students took the exams, which determine university admissions.

Students began reporting discrepancies within days of the results being released. They linked the problems to a new on-screen marking system introduced by the board.

Under the system, physical answer sheets are scanned and uploaded for teachers to mark online, with software calculating the totals. Students reported incomplete scans, missing pages, blurry images, mismatched papers and incorrect marks.

Delhi student Vedant Srivastava posted that the physics answer sheet he received was not his. He said the handwriting differed and the answers were not his own. The board later emailed him what it called the correct copy.

Geetu Moza wrote on X that her daughter lost at least 30 marks on answers that matched the official key. She asked whether officials understood what those marks could mean for university admissions.

The board introduced the new marking system eight days before exams began. Education minister Dharmendra Pradhan said he took responsibility for the discrepancies and promised a solution.