CBSE to assess Gulf Class 12 students in hybrid mode

NEw new delhi: The telephone exchange room of Secondary training (CBSE) on fri announced a hybrid assessment method for Class 12 students in the Middle East after conducting select papers between February 17 and February 28, and cancelling the remaining board examinations from March 1 onwards due to the prevailing conflict situation in the region. The board will not hold fresh examinations and will instead declare results of nearly 23,000 Class 12 students in over 200 CBSE-affiliated schools across seven West Asian countries, using a formula-based evaluation that combines actual exam performance with school-based assessment.Explaining the methodology for board exam results 2026, CBSE in a notification dated March 27 said that “in subjects where examinations have been conducted, actual performance in the examination may be taken into account for declaration of results.” For the remaining subjects, marks will be derived from school assessments, including the “best of the three marks obtained in quarterly, half-yearly and pre-board examinations.”For subjects with theory components of 80 or 70 marks, the board said schools will upload the “best of three” scores from periodic tests, while for subjects with 60, 50 or 30 marks, “performance in the final pre-board examination” will be considered.It added that internal assessment and practical components, described as “a yearlong exercise,” will remain unchanged, as the marks have already been submitted by schools.For subjects with lower theory weightage—60, 50 or 30 marks—the board said the final pre-board examination scores will be used. In cases where a student was absent, earlier pre-board scores may be considered.The board clarified that internal assessment and practical components, described as “a yearlong exercise,” will remain unchanged as “performance of the students have already been uploaded by the schools.”Students who were able to appear in all their registered subjects will have their results declared based entirely on their written examination performance, CBSE said. Those who shifted centres to other countries, including India, will also be assessed on the basis of their actual exam scores.CBSE said the approach has been designed to ensure “valid, reliable, fair, and unbiased results” in view of the prevailing situation that led to the disruption of exams across the region.Between February 17 and February 28, the board conducted exams of 17 academic subjects such as Physics, Accountancy, Geography and Chemistry along with 10 skill-based subjects.The board had cancelled exams scheduled between March 1 and April 10 across seven West Asian countries, including UAE, Iran, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, and Saudi Arabia, citing “prevailing extraordinary circumstances” that made it difficult to conduct exams. It has that “any results derived through approximation methods cannot fully match those produced from an actual examination,” but would still adhere to “fairness, reliability, validity, impartiality, and transparency.”