CBSE Releases Draft Policy For Two Board Exams From 2025-26 Academic Year

NEW DELHI: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has proposed two board examinations from the 2025-26 academic year to enable the 10^th and 12^th class students to improve their performance.

A draft policy in this regard has been put in public domain and the CBSE will accept suggestions from all stakeholders —schools, teachers, parents, students and the public — till March 9 before finalising the policy.

“The responses will be scrutinised and policy will be finalised subsequently,” media reports quoted Sanyam Bhardwaj, Controller of Examinations, CBSE, as saying.

The draft proposal has been prepared in alignment with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 which recommends that students be given an opportunity to improve their performance in exams.

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan chaired a meeting which discussed the issue at length.

The draft policy proposes that Class 10 and 12 board exams will begin on the first Tuesday after February 15, 2026.

As per the draft norms, the first phase of the exams 2026 will be conducted from February 17 to March 6, while the second phase will be conducted from May 5 to 20.

Up to 26.6 lakh students in Class 10 and 20 lakh in Class 12 are expected to appear in the exams, the draft says.

Students’ choice

Students can choose to appear for the Board exams the second time to improve scores, or they can opt out from appearing for the second time.

Performance in the first exam will be made available on the DigiLocker, which can be used for admission to Class 11, in case the student does not wish to appear for the second examination. Passing documents will not be issued after the first exam; they will only be issued after the results of the second exam are declared. Internal assessments will be conducted only once, according to the draft norms.

Marksheet and pass certificate will have marks secured in first exam, and the second exam, as well as the marks secured in practice and internal assessments and grades. The better scores of the two exams will be mentioned on the marksheet.

Registration for the Class 10 board exam in 2026 will be completed by September this year, when students need to indicate whether they want to appear for the first exam, or just the second exam or both.

After the results of the first exam are declared in April, only students who register in September for the second board exam will be allowed to take it, with the choice to “opt out” of subjects or papers that they don’t want to write again.

“After the results of the first exam are released, and if students are happy with Social Science, English and Mathematics marks, they can opt out of these papers for the second exam and just sit for the remaining subjects. The final score card will reflect the best scores,” says an official.

However, if a student has only registered for the second board exam, no further examination will be conducted.

“After gathering the feedback, the policy will be reviewed, revised and finalised, and the examination bye-laws will be amended suitably,” the draft says.

Other salient features of draft

• The scheme of studies and scheme of examinations will remain the same.
• For the Sport’s students, they have to appear in any of the two Board Examinations of Class X and no separate examination will be conducted for them.
• The examination centres will be fixed for the 1st examination, and for the 2nd examination too, the same centres shall be allotted.
• LOC will be completed by September end of the previous year from the year of conduct of examination. After submission of LOC, no change in the subjects offered will be allowed. This will be considered only in the second examination.
• Filling of LOC for the first examination will be compulsory and option for both examinations will be obtained in the LOC when filling for the first examination.
• For second examinations, LOC will be made live immediately after the result declaration only for opting out of second examinations.
• Examination fee will be enhanced and collected for both examinations at the time of filling of LOC for the first time which would be non-refundable if once paid.
• Facilities of verification, photocopy and revaluation extended after the result declaration to the students will be reviewed and framed in accordance with the availability of time.
• Students not qualified in the 1st examination could be allowed admission in Class XI and based on the result of the 2^nd examination, their admission be finalised.
• A merit certificate will be issued after the second examination and students qualifying all five subjects will be declared as pass.
• Students who fails the 1^st examination will be placed under the ‘improvement category’ and will be allowed to appear in the 2^nd examination.
• Syllabus for any examination will be the syllabus of the year of examination and additional Subjects will not be permitted.
• If a student is declared pass by replacing the 6th/7th subject will be eligible for improvement in the failed subject only for the next two examinations from their 1st examinations.

To see the full draft policy, click here.