Explained | How CBSE will assess Class 12 students in the Middle East region this year

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has announced an alternative assessment scheme for Class 12 students in West Asian countries, where board examinations were cancelled due to the ongoing conflict in the region.

As per the notification issued on March 27, students in the affected regions will be evaluated using a combination of completed board exam papers and school-based assessments, with a “best-of-three” formula applied to major theory subjects.

The policy applies to students in Bahrain, Iran, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. While the Class 12 board exams were scheduled from February 17 to April 10, only those held till February 28 could be conducted successfully in these regions. All remaining examinations were cancelled.

CBSE had earlier issued a similar alternative assessment framework for Class 10 students in the affected countries.

How the assessment will work

The scheme does not replace board exams entirely. Instead, it retains marks for papers that were conducted and substitutes only the cancelled ones with school-based scores.

For subjects where students have already appeared, their actual board exam marks will be used. For the remaining subjects, marks will be calculated using school assessments, with the method varying based on the subject’s theory weightage.

In subjects carrying 80 or 70 marks for theory (such as History, Biology and language papers), schools will submit students’ performance in the quarterly, half-yearly and final pre-board examinations. The highest score among these three will be considered for the final result.

For subjects with 60, 50 or 30 theory marks (including subjects like Business Administration, Artificial Intelligence and Marketing), only the final pre-board examination marks will be used, without any ‘best-of-three’ calculation.

In such subjects, if a student was marked absent in the final pre-board examination, schools will submit marks from an earlier pre-board examination conducted prior to the final one. 

Internal assessment and practical marks, which form the remaining component of the 100-mark paper, will remain unchanged, as these have already been uploaded by schools.

Different scenarios for students

The Board has outlined multiple scenarios depending on how many exams a student was able to take, making the evaluation a mix of direct and derived marks.

• Students who appeared in all their registered subjects will receive results based entirely on their board exam performance.

• Those who appeared in some subjects but missed others will receive a hybrid result: actual marks for attempted papers and school-based marks for the remaining ones.

• Students who did not appear in any examination conducted till March 28 will be marked absent, and their results will be declared accordingly, as per CBSE bye-laws.

• For compartment candidates from previous years, marks will be counted if the exam was conducted. If not, they will be allowed to appear in the supplementary examinations likely to be held in July 2026.

• Students who were able to shift their examination centre to another country, including India, will be evaluated entirely based on their board exam performance.

Schools have been asked to upload students’ marks between April 6 and April 13, 2026. Once submitted, no corrections will be allowed, the official notification stated.

CBSE has also said that it may verify assessment records, including answer scripts and internal evaluation data. Any deviation from fair and objective assessment practices could invite action, including cancellation of results.

What happens after the results?

The notification makes it clear that students will have limited options after the declaration of results. Verification and re-evaluation will be permitted only for subjects where board examinations were conducted, not for those assessed through school records.

However, CBSE has indicated that it may provide an opportunity for students to appear in fresh examinations for subjects that could not be conducted, if conditions permit. Marks obtained in such exams would be treated as final.

Students who do not meet the qualifying criteria will be placed in the compartment category, with examinations expected to be conducted later in the year, subject to feasibility.

CBSE has not specified when the Class 12 results for these students will be announced. Earlier, the Board had indicated that Class 10 results for affected regions would be declared along with those of students in India.