Class X board exams to be held twice in a year, proposal out for feedback

On Tuesday evening, CBSE released the proposal to conduct board exams twice in a year. The draft of the new examination system has been made available for review on the official CBSE website

New Delhi: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Tuesday announced a big change in the class 10 board exams system from the next year, officials said. From 2026, the CBSE will offer its students an opportunity to appear twice in board exams.

As per this rule the first exams will commence from the first Tuesday after February 15 every year. The first exams will be completed by March 6.

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The second phase of board exam will be held from May 5 to 20. The new system will provide an opportunity to the students to improve their results in the second exam if needed.

On Tuesday evening, CBSE released the proposal to conduct board exams twice in a year. The draft of the new examination system has been made available for review on the official CBSE website.

Stakeholders, including schools, teachers, parents, students, and the general public can provide their feedback on the proposed policy. After wider discussions, the draft policy has been developed and hosted on the CBSE website.

Stakeholders may respond to the draft policy by March 9. The responses would be scrutinised and policy will be finalised subsequently.

The Ministry of Education said that in addition to introducing greater flexibility, student choice, and best-of-two attempts, assessments that primarily test core capacities must be the immediate key reforms to all Board exams.

Boards may over time also develop further viable models of board exams that reduce pressure and the coaching culture.

Some possibilities include a system of annual/semester/modular board exams could be developed so that each test is far less material, and are taken immediately after the corresponding course is taken in school so that the pressure from exams is better distributed, less intense, and less high-stakes across the secondary stage.

Subjects and corresponding assessments, beginning with mathematics, could be offered at two levels.

The Ministry of Education had hosted a significant meeting, chaired by the Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, where this policy change was discussed in detail.

The proposal is aimed at providing students with a chance to improve their performance in the board exams, thus reducing pressure and stress on students. It will be completely student’s choice whether to appear in single exam or to take both the exams.

The entire examination process will span 34 days. In these 34 days there will be examination of 84 subjects.

Around 26.60 lakh students are expected to appear for the CBSE Class 10 exams in 2026, an official added. According to the proposal the CBSE Class 10 subjects are categorised into four groups.

In elective group — Science, Mathematics, Social Science will be the subjects.

In regional and foreign language group — French, Sanskrit, Urdu, Bengali, Gujarati, Spanish, and more languages will be included.

Exams for elective subjects will be held in two to three days. It will be based on student combinations and preferences.

The CBSE said that while the Board exams for classes 10 and 12 will be continued, the existing system of board and entrance examinations will be reformed to eliminate the need for undertaking coaching classes.

To reverse these harmful effects of the current assessment system, board exams will be redesigned to encourage holistic development, students will be able to choose many of the subjects in which they take board exams, depending on their individualised interests.

Board exams will also be made ‘easier’, in the sense that they will test primarily core capacities/competencies rather than months of coaching and memorisation, any student who has been going to and making a basic effort in a school class will be able to pass and do well in the corresponding subject board exam without much additional effort.

To further eliminate the ‘high stakes’ aspect of board exams, all students will be allowed to take such exams on up to two occasions during any given school year, one main examination and one for improvement, if desired.

Board exams in certain subjects could be redesigned to have two parts: one part of an objective tune with multiple-choice, the official added.