The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Monday introduced evaluation criteria for foreign private sector students of Class 12 in Gulf countries to ensure that students are not deprived in their academic endeavors due to examinations being canceled midway due to the exceptional war-like situation in West Asia this year.
Devising a formula based on the “weighted average” of a student’s performance in Class 10 and last attempt of the Class 12 examination, the CBSE policy was filed on June 21 before the Supreme Court which heard a petition filed by a foreign private student. The court on June 12 gave time to CBSE to come up with a policy that caters to the needs of other similar students.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta filed the CBSE notice before a bench of Justices SVN Bhatti and Vipul M Pancholi, following which the petition was closed as its marks, calculated based on the new formula that had arrived, had already been sent to it.
“We came out with new policy guidelines on June 21. As per the policy, we calculated the candidate’s scores and sent it to him via email. The scores have increased compared to the previous year’s scores scored by him,” Mehta told the court.
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The petitioner candidate was marked according to the marks he obtained in the physics and chemistry examinations he wrote before his three subjects – mathematics, English and computer science – were cancelled.
As per the formula set by CBSE, for private candidates in Gulf countries whose examinations have been cancelled, 40% of the theoretical marks scored in the Class 10 board examination and 60% of the theoretical marks scored by the student in the last attempt of the Class 12 board examination will be taken into account.
To calculate the theoretical marks for Class 10, the formula stated that the marks should be calculated as the average of the three best performing subjects out of the five main subjects. “This average shall be awarded uniformly on the condition that maximum marks for a subject shall be allotted to all Class 12 subjects for which examinations cannot be conducted,” the notification said.
“This policy ensures that students in the affected areas are not disadvantaged in their future academic and professional endeavours,” the notification issued by Controller of Examinations Sanyam Bharadwaj said.
CBSE on March 27 notified the policy for regular candidates for Class 12 across the seven countries namely Bahrain, Iran, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE.
Announcing the new policy for private foreign candidates affected by cancellation of examinations in Gulf countries, CBSE also considered special cases by stipulating that in case a student does not pass CBSE Class 10, the performance will be calculated based on the result of the board from which Class 10 was taken.
This policy kept the door open for those private candidates, dissatisfied with the new assessment scheme, to take a new set of examinations in subjects for which examinations could not be taken.
The only condition is, “If such opportunity is provided and availed, the marks obtained in these examinations will be final,” the CBSE policy said.
Mehta informed the court that CBSE took time to formulate this policy because in the case of private candidates, they did not have the school to provide internal assessment records like marks of quarterly, half-yearly and pre-board examinations, which are applicable in case of regular students.
After recording this policy, the Supreme Court closed the petition.
The petitioner’s counsel, Raj Kishore Chaudhary, urged the court to direct him to access the substantive papers attended by him. However, the authority refused to pass any other direction, and the petition was limited to announcing the results only.
The court was hearing a petition filed by Pransu Jegarkumar Patil, who registered as a special candidate in the 2026 Class 12 improvement examination from Jubail in Saudi Arabia. The delay in announcing Class 12 results affected his chances of higher education as he applied for admission in the B.Tech (Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence) program at Dhirubhai Ambani University.
