The Central Board of Secondary Education released the date-sheets of its class X and XII examinations on Tuesday, which are scheduled to take place between May 4 and June 10. This time, afternoon shift examinations have also been introduced for class XII students. When do the CBSE examinations begin and how long will they go on for? This year, the written CBSE board examinations will begin on May 4. In regular years, they would begin by late February, early March. However, later dates were settled on this year owing to schools being closed for several months due to the Covid-19 pandemic. With the date-sheets being released Tuesday, students have been notified three months in advance of their exam schedule. According to a statement by the CBSE, this is to “reduce the stress of the students and help them in better preparation for their examinations”. The last paper for class X will be held on June 7, and for class XII, they will be on June 11. Is there any difference in the duration of the CBSE examinations this year? Controller of Examinations Sanyam Bharadwaj said there has been an attempt to reduce the number of days dedicated to the examination, “so schools which will function as exam centres will be able to use the days for their own activities”. While in 2020 the examinations had been conducted over 45 days, this year 75 class X papers and 111 class XII papers will be conducted over 39 days. Bharadwaj also said exams have been scattered in such a way that too many candidates will not be writing their papers on any given day. “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 preparation for the examinations,” he said. How has the CBSE exam schedule been shortened? This time, the class XII exams will be conducted over two shifts. On four days, there will be class XII papers conducted in the afternoon shift, from 2:30 to 5:30 pm. These are papers—mostly language papers—which are not offered in any of the CBSE schools located outside India. These afternoon shift class XII exams—with limited candidates and which will be conducted in a small number of centres—will be held on those days on which class XII subjects with the maximum number of candidates—English, Science, Mathematics and Social Science—will be conducted in the morning shift. “No school staff who had worked in morning shift will be given duty in afternoon shift to de-burden them and keeping in view pandemic,” read a statement by the board.
