The CBSE board exam for Class X and XII will begin on May 4, the Education Ministry said on Tuesday, as it released a datesheet for both classes. Class X exams will finish on June 7, while Class XII exams will conclude on June 11. Practical exams will begin from March 1.
On four days the Class XII exams will be held in two shifts - the first will be from 10.30 am to 1.30 pm, and the second will be from 2.30 pm to 5.30 pm.
All Class X exams will be held from 10.30 am to 1.30 pm.
All exams will be held in the offline-written mode, and with COVID-19 safety protocols in place. These include wearing face masks at all times, the use of hand sanitisers and maintaining social distance.
The CBSE has also said that on the four days Class XII exams will be held over two shifts, staff working in the morning will not be given afternoon duty.
Results will be announced by July 15.
The first exam for Class X students will be languages - Kannada, Odia and Lepcha. Class XII exams will begin with English (both Elective and Core) at 10.30 am.
A third of each paper (33 per cent) will contain internal choice questions, and the syllabus of each subject has been reduced by 30 per cent to ease the burden on lakhs of students across the country who have seen classroom time cut drastically due to the coronavirus lockdown.
CBSE Class 10, 12 date sheet 2021: How to Download
Shortly before the dates were announced Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal said: "Please be assured that we have done our best to ensure these exams go smoothly for you. Wish you good luck!"
Last month Mr Pokhriyal said the exams - which are usually held between March and April - would not be postponed but would see reduction in syllabuses.
"... board exams will be conducted on a reduced syllabus. Thirty per cent... has been scrapped... There will also be 33 per cent internal choice in the board exam," Mr Pokhriyal tweeted.
He also responded to calls for the exams to be held online, and said this would not be fair on the lakhs of students from rural schools that had limited, if any, access to the internet.
Schools across India were shut from March last year to minimise the spread of the virus, with most shifting to online classrooms. States began re-opening them in phases from October.
Last year the board exams had to be postponed mid-way after the Covid lockdown. They were later cancelled and results declared on the basis of an alternative assessment scheme.
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