Panel flags ‘paper leak’ concern on CBSE move

CBSE, in its draft policy released last month, proposed conducting Class 10 board exams twice in an academic year starting from 2026

A parliamentary standing committee on Wednesday raised concerns over the Central Board of Secondary Education’s (CBSE) proposal to conduct Class 10 board exams for non-core and non-language subjects two to three times, saying the move has a potential for paper leaks and other irregularities.

Panel flags ‘paper leak’ concern on CBSE move

CBSE, in its draft policy released last month, proposed conducting Class 10 board exams twice in an academic year starting from 2026. According to the draft policy, core subjects including Science, Mathematics, Social Science, Hindi and English will have fixed examination dates across both phases. Regional and foreign languages will be conducted in a single sitting, while remaining subjects will be held two to three times based on student choices.

“This offers potential for question paper leaks and other irregularities which must desperately be avoided,” the Parliamentary standing committee on education, women, children, youth and sports said in its 2025-2026 demand for grants report for the Department of School Education & Literacy (DoSEL). The committee recommended “further thought be given to the system to make it foolproof”.

In its draft proposal, CBSE has stated that examination fee will be “enhanced and collected for both examinations at the time of filling of LOC for the first time which would be non-refundable if once paid.” List of Candidates (LOC) is a mandatory process for schools to submit data of students appearing in board examinations.

The committee has recommended that the examination fees not be hiked for all students, but only for those who are giving an additional attempt in the board examinations. “Moreover, given CBSE’s considerable surplus revenues, there may be occasion to reduce the fees charged to students for exams,” it said.

A CBSE official told HT that the policy is still in the draft stage. “We are currently busy with CBSE board exams 2025. After the board exams, we will discuss the suggestions and feedback that we got on the draft policy,” he said. The draft was made public on February 25, and March 9 was the deadline for feedback submission.

The committee found that few private schools are forcing students and their parents to purchase books, shoes, dresses from specific stores and “running like commercial business instead of community service.” It has recommended the CBSE to monitor these malpractices in private schools affiliated to the board and ensure compliance of provisions of its affiliation bye laws.

CBSE is functioning with 18 regional offices and Centre of Excellences (CoEs) in India including one office in Dubai for approximately 30,564 schools.

Rasing the concerns over 43.39% vacancies against sanctioned strength of 1795 and just filling 298 posts between 2020 and 2024 in CBSE, the committee took “serious note of the casual approach” of school education department and CBSE to fill up the vacancies.

Vacancies in schools

The committee has also raised concerns over teacher vacancies in schools.

The education ministry told the committee that 14.07% of the sanctioned 69,85,760 teaching posts in schools across the country are lying vacant. The Committee has recommended that the recruitment process and joining of teachers should be ensured within six months of the date of advertisements for filling up of the vacancies.

Out of a sanctioned strength of 56,810 teaching and non-teaching posts, 8,977 were vacant at Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs), representing 14.69% for teaching staff and 24.59% for non-teaching staff. The committee said it is “anguished over the increasing number of contractual appointments” in KVs as these central government-run schools recorded a nearly 100% increase in the appointment of contractual teachers to 6,734 in 2024-25 in comparison to 3,404 in 2023-24.

“Further, appointments on contractual basis undermines the constitutional provision of reservation for Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), Other Backward Classes (OBC), Economically Weaker Sections (EWS), Person with Disabilities (PwD) in these jobs,” the committee said while recommending the department and KVS to stop appointments on contract basis and fill up the vacancies by March 2026.

Underutilization of funds

The parliamentary report also highlighted significant underutilisation of funds across several flagship education schemes, as it recommended timely disbursal of funds, better financial management, and strict compliance with financial guidelines to prevent last quarter spending rushes.

The committee noted that school education department was allocated ₹57,427.39 crore for Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) like Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM-POSHAN) and Prime Minister’s Schools for Rising India (PM SHRI) among others, under Budget Estimate (BE) 2024-25 which was reduced to ₹52,480 crore at Revised Estimates (RE) stage. However, the department was able to spend ₹29,241.67 crore only as on February 2025 under these flagship schemes, which pegs at 50.9% and 55.7% of the BE and RE 2024-25, respectively.

The utilization of SSA stood at 55.8% against the allocation of ₹37,500 crore in BE 2024-25 and 56.5% of ₹37,010 crore in RE 2024-25. The utilization of PM POSHAN stood at 43.48% of ₹12467.39 crore in BE 2024-25 and 54.21% of ₹10000 crore in RE 2024-25. The funds utilization figure for PM SHRI scheme stood at 36.13% against the BE 2024-25 of ₹6,050 crores and 48.58% against the reduced allocation at RE 2024-25 of ₹4,500 crore.

The panel also took “serious” note of the non-release of Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) funds of over ₹1,000 crores to West Bengal, ₹859.63 crore to Kerala, and ₹2,152 crore to Tamil Nadu which have not signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) for implementation of Prime Minister’s Schools for Rising India (PM SHRI) scheme.

“The department has also informed the committee that PM SHRI is the model school scheme developed under the NEP (National Education Policy) and the SSA is the program to achieve the NEP goals. This appears to be the reasoning behind the decision to halt SSA grants to states not signing the PM SHRI MoU. However, the committee takes the view that this reasoning is not factual or justified,” the report stated..

The panel recommended that the department should re-evaluate SSA funding allocations to ensure that “none of the States are placed in disadvantageous positions for not accepting NEP 2020 or PM SHRI”. Education Budget

The committee noted that BE for the ministry of education for 2025-26 is ₹1,28,650.05 crore, representing 2.53% of the total budget of the union government ( ₹50.65 lakh crore). A total of 61.07% of the ministry’s budget is allocated to (DoSEL), which ultimately accounts for 1.55% of the total union budget.

The panel also noted that public spending on education as a percentage of GDP has not reached the 6% target recommended by the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. In 2021-22, the total education expenditure was only 4.12% of GDP, lower than countries like Bhutan (7.47%) and the Maldives (4.67%)

From 2014-15 to 2016-17, education expenditure as a percentage of GDP was relatively stable at around 4.07% to 4.24%. However, it decreased to 3.87% to 4.04% during 2017-2020, increased to 4.36% in 2020-21, and then declined again to 4.12% in 2021-22, the report said.

The committee recommended increasing education spending to meet the 6% GDP target.