Coempt Technologies, the Bengaluru-based edtech firm contracted to run the Central Board of Secondary Education’s Online School Management (CBSE-OSM) portal, is under Opposition fire after technical failures disrupted school affiliation records, student data uploads, and fee transactions across at least 15 states.
What Failed and Where
The CBSE-OSM platform — which replaced a paper-based affiliation system from 2023 — began showing critical errors in early May 2026. Schools in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Delhi, and Tamil Nadu reported inability to upload student migration certificates, renew affiliations, and process the mandatory ₹1,500-per-school annual compliance fee.
Principals in Lucknow and Jaipur told local press that affiliation renewal deadlines passed with the portal rejecting submissions. Late renewal carries penalties of up to ₹25,000 per school. CBSE’s Dwarka, New Delhi helpdesk acknowledged a “temporary technical disruption” but provided no restoration timeline.
Rahul Gandhi’s Allegations
“Coempt got a sweetheart government contract worth crores, students and schools are suffering, and the Education Ministry is silent. This is a scam, not a glitch.”
Rahul Gandhi, Leader of Opposition · Press briefing, New Delhi · 26 May 2026
Indian National Congress leader and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, at a New Delhi press briefing on 26 May 2026, alleged the Coempt contract was awarded without a transparent tender process and demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry. Forty-seven Congress MPs simultaneously filed a Lok Sabha notice calling for an emergency statement from Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
Coempt’s Position and CBSE’s Fix
Coempt Technologies, in a statement dated 27 May 2026, attributed the outages to a “server migration exercise” and said 94 percent of affected school records had been restored. The company did not address the tendering allegations. CBSE issued a separate circular to regional offices in Chennai, Mumbai, Panchkula, and Patna extending the affiliation renewal deadline by 21 days, now running to 18 June 2026.
The CAG Finding That Predates This Row
The 2025 Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report on education IT procurement, tabled in Parliament in December 2025, had already flagged that the CBSE-OSM contract was processed under a “limited tender” route rather than open competitive bidding. The CAG noted that three firms meeting eligibility criteria were excluded from consideration without recorded justification — a finding the Education Ministry described as “procedural” and said was under review. That review produced no public outcome, making the May 2026 outages a second pressure point on the same contract inside six months. The ₹68 crore contract figure itself emerged from a Right to Information response filed by a Delhi-based educator in March 2026, not from any official CBSE disclosure — a transparency gap the Opposition is now amplifying.
ℹ️ Background: CBSE-OSM
- CBSE-OSM replaced a paper-based affiliation system starting 2023; covers 29,000+ CBSE-affiliated schools nationwide.
- Handles affiliation renewals, student data, fee collection, and inspection scheduling.
- ₹68 crore contract value sourced from an RTI response — CBSE has not publicly disclosed the figure.
- 2025 CAG report flagged “inadequate testing protocols” before the platform’s national rollout.
What Happens Next
The Lok Sabha Speaker’s office is scheduled to take up the Congress adjournment motion on 2 June 2026. If admitted, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan must respond on the floor. Coempt has committed to full platform restoration before the CBSE deadline of 18 June 2026. Any further outage in that window will sharpen the Opposition’s case for a formal CBI probe into the contract’s award.
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