CBSE Class 10, 12 board exams 2021 schedule: Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal's big announcement; how students can check datesheet

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is restructuring the affiliation system for schools and making the process completely digital. The new system has been restructured as per various recommendations for systemic reforms laid down in the new NEP.

Speculations have been rife that the Central Board of Secondary Education may release the date sheet for Class 10, 12 board examinations after 35-40 days. Usually, the board releases the time table two months before the commencement of examinations.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will announce the exam schedule for Class 10 and Class 12 next week, Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' on Thursday. As per news agency ANI, Pokhriyal said that the CBSE will announce exam schedule for Class 10 and Class 12 on February 2.

In 2019, when the exams were scheduled to start from February 15, 2020, the board had released the date sheet in November. Going with this trend, experts have suggested that the date sheet might be out by March. Earlier last week, Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal had announced that CBSE board exams 2021 will be conducted from May 4 till June 10.

Once released, students can follow these steps to check CBSE Board Exam 2021 datasheet:

Step 1: Visit the official website of CBSE, i.e., cbse.nic.in.
Step 2: Under the announcement section, click on the link that reads, ‘CBSE schedule for 10th and 12th’
Step 3: Click on the class 10th or class 12th link.
Step 4: A new page will appear on the screen with the PDF file.
Step 5: Save and download the datesheet for future reference.

The CBSE has several issues to deal with in 2021 amid the pandemic.

1) Administrative and logistic reason: In the wake of the pandemic, CBSE administration will majorly face the challenges of maintaining the essentials of ultra-hygienic requirements like floor sanitization, social distancing, and assurance of providing covid gears like masks, face shields, and sanitisers.

2) Announcement of the election dates: The announcement of poll dates could also be the major reason for the delay of the date sheet following the importance of the board nationwide. This year 5 states– Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal will go to polls in April/May.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is restructuring the affiliation system for schools and making the process completely digital and based on data analytics with least human intervention, officials said. The new system, which will come into effect from March 1, has been restructured as per various recommendations for systemic reforms laid down in the new National Education Policy (NEP).

"The board is restructuring the affiliation system and process as per recommendations of education reforms in the NEP. Although the CBSE affiliation system has been online since 2006, the restructured system will be completely digital and based on data analytics with least human intervention," CBSE Secretary Anurag Tripathi said.

"The restructuring will help in establishing ease of doing business in the CBSE affiliation system, attaining the goal of minimum government, maximum governance, automated and data-driven decisions, achieve transparency, bring more accountability in the entire systemic processes and achieve quick and time-bound disposal of all applications," he added.

Tripathi said the board will soon come out with detailed guidelines on the restructured system. "A detailed document on the CBSE affiliation system containing the restructured online procedure for affiliation, documents required for affiliation application, modalities and standard operating procedures (SOPs) for inspection, guidelines for the inspection committee, videos for the various process, will be released soon," he said.

The board has also revised timelines for the application process as per the restructured system. As per the revised timeline, every year the application window for fresh affiliation and up-gradation of affiliation will open three times -March 1 to 31, June 1 to 30 and September 1 to 30.

"The application for extension of affiliation will be accepted from March 1 to May 31 every year. Other applications such as those for the additional subject, section increase, change of name of the school, change of society or trust, will be accepted through the year," Tripathi said.

Procuring digital signatures of a school from an authorised service provider or AADHAAR-based signatures; uploading mandatory documents such as no objection certificate, land certificate, safety certificate and certificate by district education officer, are among the prerequisites for application for affiliation.

"After the online submission of application, details submitted by the school will be analysed in accordance with the CBSE by-laws and inspection committee will be constituted immediately for the purpose of inspection. Schools will be able to get an inspection done on any of the dates mentioned in the letter," he said.

The CBSE had introduced a facility for virtual inspection of schools for up-gradation of affiliation in August last year in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. The board is also in the process of setting up a facilitation centre to address queries and problems of schools and inspection committees related to the virtual inspection.

The board had revamped its norms in 2018 for granting affiliation to schools, leaving the onus of the infrastructural audit on states and limiting its own role to academic quality monitoring. The CBSE has 24,930 schools affiliated to it across the country and abroad, with over 2 crore students and more than 10 lakh teachers. The affiliation by-laws were formulated in the year 1998.