CBSE gets new chairman, secretary; no central post for former secretary till December 2030

CBSE New Appointments: The Centre has appointed Lokhande Prashant Sitaram as the new Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) chairman and Varun Bhardwaj as secretary. The move comes after the controversy surrounding CBSE’s new on-screen marking (OSM), a new evaluation system for Class 12.

However, CBSE’s former secretary Himanshu Gupta has been barred from taking up any central deputation role until December 2030, as part of the action taken against him. Meanwhile, Bhardwaj is being directly shifted from his current central posting to become the new CBSE Secretary, replacing Himanshu Gupta, and will serve till September 2027, as part of his combined five-year tenure under the Central Staffing Scheme.

Bhardwaj is an InfoS officer (Indian Information Service, 2008 batch), who is currently working as a director in the ministry of education, department of higher education.

Whereas, CBSE’s former chairman, Rahul Singh, has been transferred and appointed as the additional secretary in the department of agriculture and farmers welfare, under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.

CBSE Appointment: 'Cover-up exercise', says opposition leader

Soon after the government transferred two top CBSE officials following the OSM fiasco row, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi termed it a "cover-up" exercise, saying while officials have been removed, the education minister has been spared.

"CBSE Chairman - Transferred. CBSE Secretary - Transferred. A one-member 'inquiry' committee - Formed. And the real culprit, Dharmendra Pradhan - Safe. "Officials removed. Minister spared. This isn't accountability-it's a cover-up," Gandhi posted on his official X (formerly Twitter) account.

Gandhi criticised the centre, urged justice for students and demanded that Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan be dismissed and an independent judicial inquiry be ordered immediately. Gandhi also questioned the selection of the private company based in Hyderabad, EduTeck Coempt, which undertook the evaluation.

CBSE OSM enquiry committee

The Centre has also ordered an enquiry into the services of the CBSE OSM system and constituted a one-member committee to examine the matter amid controversy over the new digital evaluation platform. The committee will be headed by S Radha Chauhan, the chairperson of the Capacity Building Commission (CBC). The committee will submit its report to the Department of Personnel and Training within one month.

CBSE answer scripts on DigiLocker

Notably, from next year onwards, scanned copies of answer scripts will be available on DigiLocker for CBSE students, the education ministry said.

The education ministry and CBSE are facing massive public backlash over their poor handling of the Class 12 exam.

The re-evaluation process for Class 12 results has been riddled with technical glitches, prompting students and cybersecurity experts to raise serious doubts about the integrity of the new evaluation process. CBSE adopted the OSM system this year for Class 12 answer script evaluation.