The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Sunday canceled the remaining Class 12 board exams, including papers that were previously postponed in several West Asian countries amid the ongoing conflict between Iran, the US and Israel.
The Board will later notify the manner of declaration of results to thousands of affected Class XII students studying in over 150 CBSE schools across Bahrain, Iran, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE.
In its latest circular, the sixth since March 1, the Council announced that after reviewing the feasibility of holding the exams and considering “the inputs obtained and requests received from schools and authorities of the affected countries,” it has decided to cancel all Grade 12 exams scheduled from March 16 to April 10, 2026, for students in Bahrain, Iran, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
In the circular dated March 15, the board also clarified that the exams postponed earlier “will also be cancelled.”
“The method of declaring results for Class 12 candidates in these countries will be notified separately in due course,” CBSE Examination Controller Sanyam Bhardwaj said in the latest circular, which lists Indian ambassadors to the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Iran, as well as the Consul General of India in Dubai, among those copied for necessary information and procedures.
As per the original schedule, the board conducted several board exams for Class 12 between February 17 and 28 before postponing the papers in West Asia due to the prevailing situation in the region.
During this period, the board successfully conducted examinations for subjects such as physical education, physics, accounting, geography, chemistry, etc., before issuing its first circular on March 1 postponing subsequent papers for students in Bahrain, Iran, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Earlier, the board first postponed several papers before canceling all remaining Class 10 exams for students in the affected countries on March 5.
The latest decision effectively ends the 2026 board examination cycle for both Class 10 and 12 candidates in CBSE-affiliated schools across Bahrain, Iran, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
CBSE conducts board examinations for Classes 10 and 12 annually in India and at selected overseas centers where its affiliated schools operate. This decision affects thousands of Indian students studying in schools affiliated with the Central Board of Secondary Education across the Gulf region, and among the main examination centers are Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha and Riyadh.
In recent years, CBSE has changed timetables mainly during exceptional circumstances – most notably in 2020 and 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic, when many Grade 10 and 12 exams in India and abroad were postponed or cancelled. In isolated cases, the Board has also postponed exams at specific centers due to extreme weather, local emergencies or security concerns, while maintaining the broader national timetable.
CBSE board exams for classes 10 and 12 began on February 18 this year. While the Grade 10 exams have since ended, the Grade 12 exams are still ongoing. In all, over 4.37 million students – including around 2.51 million students in Class 10 and 1.86 million students in Class 12 – registered for the CBSE board exams this year.
CBSE officials did not respond to HT’s queries till the filing of this report.
