New Delhi, June 03: The Centre on Tuesday appointed senior officer Prashant Lokhande, IAS (AGMUT:2001), as the new Chairperson of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and named Varun Bhardwaj as the board’s new Secretary as part of a significant administrative reshuffle.
The appointments come amid growing scrutiny of CBSE’s On-Screen Marking (OSM) system for Class 12 board examinations and shortly after the government ordered a high-level inquiry into the procurement and implementation of the digital evaluation platform.
According to an order approved by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, Prashant Lokhande, a 2001-batch AGMUT cadre IAS officer currently serving as Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs, will assume charge as CBSE Chairperson in the rank of Additional Secretary.
He succeeds Rahul Singh, a 1996-batch Bihar cadre IAS officer, who has been appointed as Additional Secretary in the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
The government has also appointed Varun Bhardwaj, a 2008-batch Indian Information Service officer and currently Director in the Department of Higher Education, as Secretary of CBSE. He replaces Himanshu Gupta, a 2012-batch AGMUT cadre IAS officer. Bhardwaj will serve in the role until September 19, 2027, under the Central Staffing Scheme.
The leadership changes coincide with mounting concerns over the OSM system introduced for this year’s Class 12 examinations. The digital evaluation process replaced physical answer-book assessment with the evaluation of scanned answer sheets.
Students, parents and educators have raised concerns regarding technical issues, payment-related problems, delays in re-evaluation procedures and alleged irregularities in the rollout of the system.
In response, the Centre has constituted a one-member inquiry committee headed by S. Radha Chauhan, Chairperson of the Capacity Building Commission, to examine the procurement process and implementation of the OSM platform.
The committee has been tasked with investigating allegations that procurement norms may have been relaxed in favour of a particular vendor and has been directed to submit its report to the Department of Personnel and Training within one month.
Meanwhile, CBSE has opened its re-evaluation window from June 2 to June 6, enabling eligible students who have obtained scanned copies of their evaluated answer sheets to apply for verification of marks and re-evaluation of specific responses.
The administrative changes and inquiry are expected to play a key role in addressing concerns around examination governance and strengthening transparency in the board’s evaluation processes.
