NEW DELHI: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Friday announced a blended assessment method for Class XII students in the Middle East after conducting selected papers between February 17 and 28, and canceling the remaining board exams from March 1 onwards due to the prevailing conflict situation in the region. The board will not hold new exams, and instead will announce the results of nearly 23,000 Class XII students in more than 200 CBSE schools in seven West Asian countries, using a formula-based assessment that combines actual exam performance and school-based assessment.
Explaining the methodology for the 2026 board exam results, CBSE said in a notification dated March 27: “In the subjects where the exams were conducted, the actual performance in the exam may be taken into account while declaring the results.” For the remaining subjects, grades will be extracted from school assessments, including “the best three grades obtained in the semester, semi-annual and preliminary examinations.”
For subjects with theory components of 80 or 70 marks, the board said schools will upload the “best three marks” from periodic examinations, while for subjects with 60, 50 or 30 marks, “performance in the final preliminary examination” will be considered.
She added that the internal assessment and practical components, described as a “year-long exercise”, would remain unchanged, as grades had already been submitted by schools.
For subjects with low theoretical weight – 60, 50 or 30 marks – the council said that final exam grades will be used before the council. In cases where a student is absent, pre-board grades may be taken into consideration.
The board explained that the internal assessment and practical components, described as a “year-long exercise”, will remain unchanged as “students’ performance has already been uploaded by the schools”.
Students who manage to appear in all registered subjects will have their results declared based on their performance in the written examinations, CBSE said. Those who have transferred centers to other countries, including India, will also be assessed on the basis of their actual examination scores.
CBSE said the approach was designed to ensure “valid, reliable, fair and unbiased results” in view of the prevailing situation that has led to disruption of examinations across the region.
From February 17 to 28, the council conducted exams in 17 academic subjects such as physics, accounting, geography and chemistry, along with 10 skill-based subjects.
The council had canceled exams scheduled between March 1 and April 10 in seven countries in West Asia, including the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and Saudi Arabia, citing “the prevailing exceptional circumstances” that made it difficult to hold the exams. It states that “any results obtained through approximation methods cannot exactly match those resulting from actual examination,” but will remain committed to “fairness, reliability, validity, impartiality and transparency.”
