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The draft policy has been developed after wider discussions and is available on CBSE website at cbse.gov.in, the board stated in its official notice
News18
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has recommended conducting the class 10 board exams twice from the academic year 2026. It has published the draft norms for conducting Class 10 board exams twice a year and it is on the official website for stakeholders and the public to give their suggestions, the board said in an official notice.
“National Education Policy, 2020 has recommended that students will be given an opportunity to improve their performance in Board examinations,” the CBSE said. A meeting was organised in the Ministry of Education chaired by the Minister of Education, Dharmendra Pradhan wherein it was discussed that two board examinations be conducted from 2025-2026 for class 10.
Feedback Invited On Draft Policy
A draft policy has been developed by CBSE and feedback has been invited from all stakeholders. “This draft Policy be hosted on CBSE Website for getting responses from all stakeholders, i.e. schools, teachers, parents, students, and others (General Public etc.). Accordingly, the draft Policy has been developed after wider discussions and is available on CBSE website, cbse.gov.in. Stakeholders may respond to the Draft Policy by 09.03.2025. The responses would be scrutinised and policy be finalized,” the official notice added.
Himanshu Gupta, Secretary of CBSE, told News18.com that this is only a draft, which has been published for feedback from stakeholders. The final decision will be made only after considering the stakeholders’ input.
The board has further stated that to avoid the ‘high stakes’ aspect of board exams, all students will be allowed to take class 10 exams up to two occasions during any given school year — one main examination and one for improvement.
CBSE Tentative Class 10 Board Exam Schedule 2025-26
According to the schedule released by the board, the first phase of the class 10 exams 2026 will be held from February 17 to March 6, and the second phase from May 5 to 20. A total of 26,60,000 students have registered for the board exams next year.
The board has also issued the draft date sheet:
What To Do If You Fail To Qualify CBSE Phase 1 Exam?
“Students not qualified in the 1st examination could be allowed admission in Class 11 and based on the result of the 2nd examination, their admission be finalised. A merit certificate will be issued after 2nd examination. Students qualifying all 5 subjects will be declared as pass. Students who failed to pass from 1 to 5 subjects in 1st examination will be placed under the “Improvement Category” and will be allowed to appear in 2nd examination to be held in
July 2026,” the CBSE said.
