Last Updated:
The CBSE plans to hold board exams twice a year from 2026 — February-March and May-June. For now, the rule will be applicable to only Class 10 students
According to the education ministry officials, students will have the flexibility to pick subjects they wish to take for each cycle. (Representative Image/AFP)
Two board exams will be held for Class 10 by the Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE) in 2026-27 academic session, the Union Ministry of Education (MoE) has announced. The ministry is likely to come out with a “theme paper” on the proposed reform, which will be released on Monday, officials said.
So, how does the CBSE plan to implement this?
The initiative aligns with the new National Education Policy (NEP), 2020, which envisages allowing more flexibility to students and is part of exam reforms that are being introduced under the National Curriculum Framework – for School Education (NCF-SE), released in 2023.
Compact Exam Schedule
The MoE had asked the CBSE to come up with a draft scheme on holding board exams multiple times during a year to allow students an opportunity to improve their marks and retain the best score, the way it’s done in many other countries, including the US.
The modalities of the said reform were discussed in a high-level meeting headed by Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan on February 18, which had representatives from the ministry, CBSE, Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs) and Navodya Vidyalayas. The CBSE has more than 27,000 schools affiliated to it in India.
The CBSE, which is the largest national school board in India, plans to hold the exam twice a year from 2026-27 — February-March and May-June. The NCF recommended the reform for board exams for both Classes 10 and 12. But with the large number of students, the CBSE plans to go through the transformation gradually. Hence, it will first implement it only for Class 10 students next year.
Students will have the choice to opt for any of the two cycles or both and select all or specific subjects for each cycle. The final certification will be based on a cumulative result.
“We will be coming out with a theme paper on the new scheme on Monday. It will have all the details of the various formats the Board is considering for conducting two set of exams,” a CBSE official said.
According to CBSE officials, it will have to shrink the exam cycle to a much shorter duration than what is the practice currently. So far, board exams span almost a month or more, beginning around mid-February and go on till mid-March or so, with a gap between two papers sometimes extending from two days to a week or more. This is done to ensure that no two subjects chosen by a student fall on the same day. The Board is now working out the logistics for restructuring the exam and compress the month-long schedule to two weeks or less.
“This is important so that we can bring the results for both set of exams by June itself. It will be crucial for Class 12 students, as the admissions to colleges start by July. So, the entire process of declaring results will have to be completed by June,” a government official said.
What Are The Other Changes On Anvil?
According to ministry officials, students will have the flexibility to pick subjects they wish to take for each cycle. For example, if they are satisfied with their February exam cycle score for a particular subject/subjects, they may opt out of the second exam cycle. In any case, if they have appeared in both cycles, the best scores obtained in any of the two cycles will be retained for final result.
The CBSE will also introduce two difficulty levels (basic and standard) for subjects including science, mathematics and social sciences, starting from class 9 onwards.
Announcing the reform, Pradhan posted on X: “Creating a stress-free learning environment for students has been an important focus of the Government. Examination Improvement and Reform is a key step towards this. Taking this a step forward, held detailed deliberations with Secretary School Education, CBSE Chairperson and other officials of the Ministry and CBSE over ‘Conduct of CBSE examinations twice a year’. The draft schema of these deliberations will be placed soon for public consultation by CBSE. This reform is another crucial step towards implementation of key provisions of NEP and will help mitigate exam related stress among students.”
What Does The NCF-SE Say?
The NCF-SE was developed by a 12-member steering committee led by former ISRO chief K Kasturirangan. The panel recommended holding Class 12 board examinations at least twice a year to ensure that students have enough time as well as opportunity to perform well. Modular board examinations are to be offered as opposed to a single examination at the end of the year, which creates undue stress on students. With a modular system, students will have the option of picking their preferred schedule or appear for both to retain their best score.
“Students can then appear for a board examination in courses they have completed and feel ready for. This process could be made possible through the creation of a comprehensive test item bank, which can be used to create tests using suitable software. This will enable the move towards a system of on-demand examinations in the near future as described in NEP 2020,” the NCF-SE stated.
