CBSE doesn’t expect more than 40% Class 10 students to appear for 2nd optional exam

Published on: Nov 20, 2025 07:01 PM IST

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CBSE chairperson Rahul Singh said the board would not allow students to split their attempts across the two cycles to preserve the seriousness of the first exam

NEW DELHI: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) does not expect more than 40% of Class 10 students who appear in the first mandatory exam in mid-February to sit for the optional second examinations in May, board chairperson Rahul Singh said on Thursday.

CBSE chairperson Rahul Singh said students who are absent in three or more subjects in the first set of exams in Feb would not be allowed to sit for the second round of examination in May (File Photo/Facebook/cbseindia29)

CBSE will not allow students to split their attempts across the two cycles to preserve the seriousness of the first exam, he said.

A student who is absent in three or more subjects in the first exam beginning from February 17 will not be allowed to sit for the second examination to improve their marks, Singh said, addressing a webinar on the CBSE two-board exam scheme.

CBSE will start conducting the Class 10 board exams biannually from the 2026 cycle, with the first mandatory exam in mid-February and an optional second exam in May for students aiming to improve their marks in three subjects out of four – science, mathematics, social science, and languages.

This change is in line with the recommendations of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which stressed reducing the ‘high-stakes’ nature of board exams.

About 2.6 million Class 10 students are expected to appear for the board exams beginning in February 2026.

Singh said the second examination was expected to have a lower evaluation load on teachers than the first.

“In the first board exam in Class 10, the total number of answer books which are evaluated by the board comes to around 1.5 crore… a bit more than that. We do not expect the evaluation load for the second board exam to be more than 20 to 30 lakh. So, we also hope that we will be able to complete evaluations quickly and be able to deliver the results for the second board exams in time. Our deadline is June 30… to close the entire cycle so that schools get on with the task of new admissions and teaching,” he said.

CBSE had previously indicated that the second round of exams would be held from May 15 to June 1, with results announced by July 15, 2026. According to the schedule announced on October 30, the main board exams will run from February 17 to March 10 for Class 10 and from February 17 to April 9 for Class 12.

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CBSE doesn’t expect more than 40% Class 10 students to appear for 2nd optional exam

CBSE chairperson Rahul Singh said the board would not allow students to split their attempts across the two cycles to preserve the seriousness of the first exam

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