Months after the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) came under major scrutiny and was in the eye of a storm over lapses in the implementation of its On-Screen Marking (OSM) system, senior IAS officer Mandeep K Bhandari was on Friday appointed as the board’s chairperson.
Mandeep K Bhandari’s Educational Background
Earlier reporting noted: IAS officer Mandeep Bhandari named new CBSE chairman months after re-evaluation row Senior IAS officer Mandeep K Bhandari was appointed as the chairman of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) after the Centre carried out a bureaucratic reshuffle on Friday. The OSM system and the post-result process triggered concerns following a flood of complaints from students and parents over alleged answer-sheet mix-ups, portal technical glitches, payment failures, and delays in verification and re-evaluation. He will take charge from Lokhande Prashant Sitaram, who was holding additional charge as CBSE chairperson. The cadre covers Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram, and the Union Territories, including Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Bhandari is currently serving as Principal Secretary to the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir. The Centre also ordered a probe into the procurement of the digital evaluation system. Bhandari has a medical background. His educational qualifications include an MBBS from Punjab University, Chandigarh, and Dayanand Medical College and Hospital. His service profile records qualifications in surgery and medicine. He is also an MBBS gold medallist. Mandeep K Bhandari’s Administrative Career Bhandari has held several administrative positions at the Centre and in Union Territories during his career. Bhandari will now take charge as the CBSE chairperson. The CBSE had started a probe into the procurement of services for the board’s controversial, glitch-prone platform.
Mandeep K Bhandari is a 2001-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the AGMUT cadre. His appointment comes after the Centre, on June 2, removed Rahul Singh as CBSE chairperson and Himanshu Gupta as board secretary following serious lapses in the handling of the CBSE board examination result process. Earlier reporting noted: The move comes months after CBSE witnessed massive uproar of allegations of irregularities in the rollout of the On-Screen Marking (OSM) system used to assess Class 12 answer scripts. Earlier reporting noted: On June 2, then CBSE chairman Rahul Singh and secretary Himanshu Gupta were transferred out of the Board, and Prashant Lokhande was appointed as the new CBSE chairperson.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) approved Bhandari’s appointment, according to an order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT).
Bhandari has completed more than 25 years of service and has worked at 10 different places in 10 positions, according to his service record.
