CBSE announces dates for classes 10, 12 Board exams: Check schedule here

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) exams for Class 10 and 12 will begin on May 4, with Class 12 exams to be conducted in two shifts to reduce the number of exam days.

Exams will be conducted for 75 subjects in Class 10 and 111 subjects in Class 12 for which over 34 lakh students have registered this year.

According to the datasheet, released by the CBSE on Tuesday, the exams for Class 10 will conclude on June 7, while those for class 12 will end on June 11.

The CBSE exams, usually conducted in February-March, were scheduled for May-June this year, giving students adequate time to complete studies that were affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Schools across the country were closed in March last year to contain the spread of Covid-19 and partially reopened in some states from October 15.

“The exam date sheet has been prepared in such a manner that on any day, the total number of students in an examination centre is limited. This will help the examination centres to strictly follow the Covid-19 safety norms,” the CBSE said.

For Class 12, in the second shift, examinations will be conducted in subjects which are not opted by students in schools situated abroad.

The timings for the two shifts will be 10:30 am to 1:30 pm and 2:30 pm-5:30 pm.

“In the second shift, examinations will be conducted on four days. On those days exams for Class 10 will be conducted in the morning shift,” the CBSE said.

It said the exam date sheet has been prepared in such a manner that on any day, the total number of students in an examination centre is limited and no school staff who has worked on morning shift will be given duty on afternoon shift following safety guidelines.

The exam schedule for 2021 spread over 39 days, as against the 45 days taken the previous year.

For Class 12, the exam will begin with English subject on May 4 followed by additional subjects like Taxation, Carnatic Vocal Music and Hindustani Music on May 5.

For Class 10, the exam will begin with Odia, Kannada and Lepcha subjects on May 4, followed by English on May 6 and Hindi on May 10.

Sanyam Bhardwaj, Controller of Examination of CBSE, told PTI, "This year, fewer days are taken to conduct the examinations from last years. In 2020, examination schedule was of 45 days. However, in 2021, examination schedule is of 39 days. Sufficient time has been given between the examinations of two main subjects in both the classes. This will reduce the stress of the students and help them in better preparations for the examinations."