Sidhant gave a detailed presentation before the Parliamentary Panel on how, according to him, the CBSE “rewrote rules” to favour Coempt EduTeck.
Seventeen-year-old Sarthak Sidhant, a class 12 student who exposed the alleged irregularities in the Central Board of Secondary Education’s (CBSE) On-Screen Marking (OSM) system tendering process, Tuesday apepared before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports.
Sidhant gave a detailed presentation before the Parliamentary Panel on how, according to him, the CBSE “rewrote rules” to favour Coempt EduTeck, the firm under scrutiny after large scale discrepancies in evaluation of CBSE class 12th results.
Advertisement
According to news agency ANI, Sidhant is gave presentation before the committee at the Parliament House Annexe, where members are reviewing the use of OSM in CBSE Class 12 examinations and concerns raised by students regarding evaluation and transparency.
Advertisement
“He (Sarthak Sidhant, one of the students affected by the CBSE’s On-Screen Marking (OSM) system) has made his presentation. It is for the committee to decide (on the replies given by the CBSE),” Congress leader Digvijay Singh, who is chairing the panel, said.
What did the findings published by Sarthak Sidhant reveal?
According to the teenager, who claims to be one of the 17 lakh students that have been affected by the On Screen Marking system released by the Central Board of Secondary Education, the rules, terms, conditions, and clauses, were rewritten, to favor a specific vendor- Coempt Edu Teck.
“This was done at the expense of national data security, and the future of students,” he said in his blog published on his website.
Sidhant said that before winning the CBSE Tender, Coempt Eduteck was known as Globarena Technologies, the behind the 2019 Telangana Intermediate exam fiasco.
“Globarena’s Software, failed miserably, and massively. failing over 3.8 lakh students due to missing marks and other systemic discrepancies. 23 Students committed suicide because of this,” he alleged.
According to him, a committee appointed by the Telangana government found out that Globarena never actually signed a formal agreement with TSBIE, for the 4.35 crore project. The commitee submitting it’s report, cited “systemic failures, procedural collapse, and glaring negligence”
After the controversy, Globarena changed their name to Coempt Edu Teck.
Despite having a poor track record, the CBSE granted the tender of OSM to Coempt Edutech.
“In the Old RfP, the board explicitly stated that a service provider would be instantly disqualified if a confidential inquiry or past record revealed an history of “abandoning work,” “not properly completing contractual obligations,” or “financial failures/weaknesses in any institution.”
In the old RfP, the CBSE clearly mentioned that the “Bidder is liable to disqualification if it has a record of poor performance, OR BLACKLISTED EARLIER BY THE BOARD, OR HAVE BEEN DEBARRED FROM ANY ASSIGNMENT BY ANY GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATION.”
In the new RFP, however, the CBSE allegedly changed the requirement to “currently blacklisted” in the Pre-Qualification Criteria.
The old CBSE RfP mandated that bidders must have an average annual turnover of at least Rs 50 Crore over the last three financial years (FY 2022-23 to 2024-25) specifically from digital examination/evaluation services.
The Coempt Edutech narrowly managed to achieve this criteria. According to Sidhant, “Independent financial statements show sales of Rs 32.1 Cr (Mar-2023), Ra 52.7 Cr (Mar-2024), and Rs 67.8 Cr (Mar-2025). Their precise three-year average calculates to exactly ₹50.86 Crore.”
Advertisement
