New Delhi: Despite widespread reports of technical malfunctions within the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Class 12 re-evaluation portal, the board asserted on Tuesday that its digital infrastructure is operating effectively, attributing earlier difficulties to minor login issues.

Nevertheless, numerous students utilised the social media platform X to document systematic failures, alleging that the portal had crashed and rendered them unable to log in or finalise their application submissions.

In a statement to the Press Trust of India, CBSE Examination Controller Sanyam Bhardwaj acknowledged receiving a limited number of inquiries regarding login failures early in the day but maintained that no further grievances had been logged.

“Sometimes when candidates open the same page, an earlier saved page opens again. I asked them to restart the computer. After that, no phone calls have been received by me,” Bhardwaj said.

He recommended that students encountering intermittent problems attempt the process again after a short interval. "If sometimes they are not able to do it, it is not that they will continue to remain on the application for a longer period. They can wait and then submit again," he added.

Bhardwaj maintained that the platform is operating without significant errors, citing a personal test of the system. "From my side, it is functioning properly. Even as a dummy candidate, I submitted an application, and it was submitted correctly," he said. He suggested that reported issues may stem from unstable internet connectivity on the users' side rather than systemic faults. Additionally, he confirmed the removal of the CAPTCHA feature following student reports that the verification tool was not appearing correctly.

Regarding concerns that high web traffic caused the slowdown, Bhardwaj rejected the premise. "I don't think so because the National Informatics Centre (NIC) is taking care of our website, and everything is going well from their point of view also. One team is looking after this entire work at the NIC, also," he noted.

The CBSE initiated the application process for the verification and re-evaluation of Class 12 answer scripts on Tuesday, responding to anxieties expressed by parents and students regarding the board’s On-Screen Marking methodology. Students have been granted a window from May 19 through May 22 to file their requests, with access to the rechecked answer sheets scheduled between May 26 and May 29.

In a shift in policy, the board has significantly reduced processing fees: students may now view their answer scripts for a fee of Rs 100, down from Rs 700. Verification and validation services have been reduced to Rs 100 from Rs 500, while the cost for a re-check of individual questions has been set at Rs 25 per item.

With inputs from PTI