When the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) begins offering two board examinations for Class 10 students from 2026 onwards, all students will have to mandatorily appear for the first set of exams.
Students will then be given an opportunity to improve their performance but will have to choose three subjects out of science, mathematics, social science, and the two language papers, going by the final policy for two board exams that the CBSE announced on Wednesday.
So far, the CBSE has had a system of permitting students to write improvement exams in two papers. With the new policy, students can choose to improve their performance in three subjects.
CBSE Chairman Rahul Singh attributed the decision to make the first exam mandatory and to limit the number of papers that a student can give in the second exam to a need to ensure seriousness of the main exam. “There has to be a practical limitation imposed to inject seriousness into the main exam, which is the first exam. The child should attempt the first board exam seriously,” he said, pointing out that the second exam is a “optional, additional opportunity for the purpose of improvement”.
If a student has not appeared in three or more subjects in the first exam, they will not be allowed to appear in the second exam. They will only be allowed to take the exam in the next year, under the ‘essential repeat’ category.
An exception is being made for students of schools in winter-bound areas, including Ladakh, parts of Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, and Himachal Pradesh.
“There may be snow in parts of the country in February. If students in these areas are not able to make it for the first exam, they can choose to appear for only the second set of exams,” Singh said.
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In line with NEP 2020
The decision to offer two board exams is in line with the NEP 2020, which envisions one main examination and one for improvement ‘to eliminate the high stakes aspect of board exams’.
The first exam will be held from mid-February onwards, as has been the case so far. The results of the first exam will be announced in April. The student will then get to decide if they want to give the second exam, and the list of candidates for the second exam will be prepared separately. The second exam will be held in May, with the results expected in June. The better of the two scores will count towards the final result.
Students who may not have cleared the first exam can give the second in the ‘compartment’ category.
Singh said an outer limit of June 30 has been set for the declaration of the results of the second exam. This marks a difference from the existing system of students giving improvement papers in July, and getting their results in August.
The CBSE plans to eventually extend the two-board exam policy to Class 12. When it does, the same outer limit of June 30 is likely for the results of the second exam for Class 12, keeping in mind the marks needed for college admissions.
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On conducting two board exams for Class 10, CBSE had issued a draft scheme in February this year and sought feedback. Overall, 64% of students responded in favour, Singh said.
The draft policy had not specified that the first exam would be mandatory for all students. It had also not set a limit on the number of subjects in the second exam.
