A major relief to class 10th students appearing in the Board examinations as the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) eases the passing criteria. CBSE notified the revision of passing criteria on February 27 at cbse.nic.in. The board has decided to implement overall 33 percent pass mark for this batch (2017-18) only. This means that students will not have secure 33 percent separately in written exams and internal assessments. On January 30, 2017 CBSE announced to restore class 10 board examination from the academic session 2017-18. It was at that time when the board has decided for separate passing criteria where students was supposed to score 33 percent separately in board exams and internal assessments. The current batch of class 10th students will sit for the board exam on March 5, which will be the first mandatory public exam after eight years.

The notification reads, “The examination committee of the board in its meeting held on February 16 after considering the circumstances and the facts that the current batch of class X: 2018 is coming from a different assessment background while they were in class IX (in 2017) resolved to approve the following for this batch of class-X appearing in 2018 examinations as a one-time measure.” The same passing criteria will also apply in the additional subjects provided those are comprised of internal assessment of 20 marks and board examination of 80 marks. The detailed notification is available on the official website of CBSE.

It is important for all students to note that this is a one-time relaxation. From next batch 2018-19, the separate pass criteria would remain. Also, there are no changes in the passing criteria for class 12th board examination. CBSE class 10th board exams will begin from March 5 and continue till April 4. Class 12th CBSE board exams will also commence from March 5 but will end on April 12. With this exemption, class 10 students need not have to worry about securing a pass percentage in this year’s board exam. Nearly 28.24 lakh students have registered for the exams, 16.38 lakh is expected to write class 10th and 11.86 lakh for class 12th.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 28, 2018 11:12 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).