Analysis: What CBSE’s holding Class 10 board exams twice a year means for schools, teachers, students

NEW DELHI: Holding two rounds of the CBSE Class 10 board exams may cause confusion, shorten teaching time for schools and disrupt the academic schedule, feel principals. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) published the draft policy for conducting the Class 10 CBSE board exam twice a year on Tuesday.

School principals have also raised concerns about the proposal to collect examination fees for both exams, irrespective of whether students actually appear for the second one. The change, a part of the set of reforms ushered in by the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, aims to lower the stakes for each exam by giving students a chance to improve their scores.

As per the draft scheme, the CBSE Class 10 board exams 2026 will be held in two phases – first phase from February 17 to March 6 and second phase from May 5 to May 20. As per the draft, on which CBSE will gather feedback till March 9, the policy is to be implemented first for Class 10 in 2026. The CBSE Class 12 exam will continue to be held in one round for now.

CBSE Board Exams: Schedule for Class 10

Minakshi Kushwaha, principal of Birla Vidya Niketan, Delhi thinks the policy will result in confusion.

She explains, “From the school’s point of view there are challenges. If the student is taking an exam in February, like it is now, the syllabus is completed by December and January is the revision time. The second exam as proposed is to be taken in May. Does this mean that as schools we continue with the revision? This way the actual teaching time is affected.”

Even Sudha Acharya, principal of ITL Public School and former chairperson of the National Progressive Schools Conference (NPSC), a consortium of public schools, feels that teaching hours will be docked.

“Having two exams means teachers will have to be sent for evaluation twice.Then holding a four-month exam already means reduced teaching learning. In Delhi, there are again several breaks due to pollution, heat and cold weather. The Right to Education mandates 220 days of teaching,” said Acharya.

Even Jyoti Arora, principal of Mount Abu Public School feels that there is a need to simplify the process of “examination and evaluation” before moving to the two board exams.

“It is a welcome move, students should not be tested on the basis of three hours, but that also compromises the teaching hours. Right now, teachers are either on examination duty or evaluation duty. Now, with two exams, it will be even more difficult. So in order to simplify the process of leaving the core papers, maybe other subjects can be OMR-sheet based exams. OMR sheets are easier for evaluation,” said Arora.

CBSE policy and Class 11 admissions

Kushwaha also has reservations about the draft’s provisions on Class 11 admissions. At the senior secondary level, admission in some streams is contingent on Class 10 scores.

The draft states, “Students not qualified in the first examination could be allowed admission in Class 11 and based on the result of the second examination, their admission be finalised.”

“Suppose a student takes admission in commerce stream after the first examination. Later, appearing in the second examination, he decides to switch to science stream – what are schools supposed to do in this scenario? Who is going to compensate for the child’s teaching? The more chances given, the thought process will change,” she said.

Acharya echoed her. “What happens to the child if he or she cannot clear the second examination. Demoting a child is not good in any way, would that not affect the child?” she asked.

CBSE exam fees

Principals feel it is important for CBSE to review the provision on exam fees.

The draft policy on CBSE board exams twice a year states: “Examination fee will be enhanced and collected for both the examinations at the time of filling of LOC for the first time, which would be non-refundable if once paid.”

“This provision is going to create a lot of burden on the students. This means every student will pay double fees. How will the EWS students and those from government schools pay the fees?” asked Acharya.

AK Jha, principal of Government Co-ed Sarvodaya Vidyalaya, Sector 8 Rohini, has the same concern and said that the fees should not be increased.

“The percentage of students appearing for the second examination will not be much. I believe it would mostly be students who have medical emergencies or sportspersons. It doesn't make sense for everyone to pay for it,” said Jha.

That said, Jha also feels that the second exam will go a long way to erase the stigma attached to “compartment exams”.

“For students who could not do well in the exam they had to appear for the compartment exam in July and by the time results were declared it used to be September. So a student would miss lessons in Class 11 and many would not get admission,” said Jha.