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CBSE to assess Gulf Class 12 students in hybrid mode

CBSE announced a hybrid assessment for Class 12 students in the Middle East, using a mix of exam scores and school assessments due to exam cancellations.

Published on: Mar 28, 2026, 07:18:05 IST
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New Delhi: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Friday 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.

CBSE to assess Gulf Class 12 students in hybrid mode
CBSE to assess Gulf Class 12 students in hybrid mode

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.

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.”

 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sanjay Maurya

Sanjay Maurya is a Principal Correspondent with Hindustan Times, where he covers education, with a focus on school and higher education, competitive examinations, education policy and governance. Working as part of the National Bureau, he is based in New Delhi and reports on the Ministry of Education and covers various statutory bodies like UGC, AICTE and NCTE and autonomous bodies like CBSE and NCERT. His reporting also tracks the implementation of key government reforms and policies from school education to higher education including in IITs, NITs, IIMs, central and state universities, and their impact on students and educational institutions. His reporting on the irregularities and rushed implementation of CBSE's On-Screen Marking (OSM) system for evaluation of Class 12 board exams 2026, triggered administrative action, leading to the transfer of the board's two senior-most officials and the constitution of a committee to probe alleged irregularities in procurement process of the system. He joined Hindustan Times in December 2024. Prior to that, he had a three-year stint at Careers360, where he reported on school and higher education, entrance examinations, admissions, rankings and various education policies involving universities and professional education bodies. Over the years, Maurya has reported extensively on major developments in India's education sector, including the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, reforms in the National Testing Agency (NTA) following the NEET-UG 2024 controversy, changes in school education, higher education regulation, and the evolution of entrance examinations such as NEET, JEE and CUET. He regularly produces data-driven and explanatory stories based on government documents, parliamentary proceedings, court records and official data. His focus remains on helping readers understand how education policies and institutional decisions affect millions of students, teachers and educational institutions across the country.

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