Central Board of Secondary Education

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is a national-level board of education in India for public and private schools, controlled and managed by the Government of India. Established in 1929 by a government resolution, the Board was an experiment in inter-state integration and cooperation in the sphere of secondary education. There are more than 27,000 schools in India and 240 schools in 28 foreign countries affiliated with the CBSE. All schools affiliated with CBSE follow the NCERT curriculum, especially those in classes 9 to 12. The current Chairperson of CBSE is Lokhande Prashant Sitaram, IAS

The constitution of the Board was amended in 1952 to give its present name, the Central Board of Secondary Education. The Board was reconstituted on 1 July 1962 to make its services available to students and various educational institutions across the country.

History The first education board to be set up in India was the United Provinces Board of High School and Intermediate Education in 1921, which was under the jurisdiction of Rajputana, Gwalior and Central India. In 1929, In response to the representation made by the Government of United Provinces, the Government of India suggested to set up a joint board for all the areas and it was named as the Board of High School and Intermediate Education Rajputana. This included Gwalior, Ajmer, Central India and Merwara. In 1962, The board was reconstituted to extend its services, merging with the Delhi Board of Higher Secondary Education and thus it became the Central Board of Secondary Education.

Number of applicants by year Year CBSE 12th board CBSE 10th board Registered Appeared Qualified Registered Appeared Qualified 1992 – 153,492 105,120 – 280,268 175,851 1993 – 162,019 113,618 – 292,013 193,291 1994 – 182,332 134,894 – 301,610 209,419 1995 – 195,026 138,264 – 318,235 201,694 1996 – 208,492 150,086 – 330,795 212,349 1997 – 205,067 150,323 – 385,858 248,001 1998 – 222,000 161,252 – 409,695 259,088 1999 – 253,253 189,149 – 438,137 282,093 2000 – 265,346 202,579 – 466,990 305,290 2001 – 286,268 215,287 – 481,455 320,690 2002 342,806 327,567 246,340 529,919 515,752 358,613 2003 366,000 352,105 259,102 562,000 549,321 373,652 2004 – 380,469 289,144 – 557,149 402,377 2005 420,240 404,856 314,998 605,477 591,341 441,137 2006 454,480 435,648 346,565 647,992 632,014 487,650 2007 502,688 484,308 390,550 705,152 688,729 581,594 2008 549,344 530,199 428,993 765,095 748,007 651,373 2009 637,976 612,103 495,782 813,413 805,421 715,529 2010 700,983 672,918 537,467 902,747 886,338 791,304 2011 770,043 756,279 628,266 1,062,322 1,058,791 1,016,282 2012 815,749 802,068 649,425 1,179,182 1,177,111 1,157,848 2013 944,721 920,038 776,215 1,257,893 1,256,125 1,238,996 2014 1,028,928 1,007,322 967,993 1,327,350 1,326,100 1,312,238 2015 1,040,515 1,016,369 788,822 1,370,637 1,369,087 1,328,935 2016 1,065,179 1,041,482 824,355 1,491,293 1,489,021 1,431,861 2017 1,096,317 1,076,760 832,536 1,668,567 1,660,123 1,509,383 2018 1,184,386 1,162,645 918,763 1,638,464 1,625,967 1,408,588 2019 1,218,393 1,205,484 1,005,427 1,774,299 1,761,078 1,604,428 2020 1,203,595 1,192,961 1,059,080 1,885,885 1,873,015 1,713,121 2021 1,430,188 1,304,561 1,296,318 2,150,608 2,097,128 2,076,997 2022 1,444,341 1,435,366 1,330,662 2,109,208 2,093,978 1,976,668 2023 1,680,256 1,660,511 1,450,174 2,184,117 2,165,805 2,016,779 2024 1,633,730 1,621,224 1,426,420 2,251,812 2,238,827 2,095,467 2025 1,704,367 1,692,794 1,496,307 2,385,079 2,371,939 2,221,636 2026 1,780,365 1,768,968 1,507,109 2,483,479 2,471,777 2,316,008

Languages CBSE offers academic subjects in 40 different languages, which are Arabic, Assamese, Bahasa Melayu, Bengali, Bhutia, Bodo, English, French, German, Gujarati, Gurung, Hindi Course-A, Hindi Course-B, Japanese, Kannada, Kashmiri, Kokborok, Lepcha, Limboo, Malayalam, Meitei (Manipuri), Marathi, Mizo, Nepali, Odia, Persian, Punjabi, Rai, Russian, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Spanish, Sherpa, Tamang, Tamil, Tangkhul, Telugu AP, Telugu Telangana, Thai, Tibetan, Urdu Course A and Urdu Course B.

Affiliations CBSE affiliates all Kendriya Vidyalayas, all Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, private schools, and most of the schools approved by the central government of India. All State Government schools in Delhi are affiliated with CBSE. There are 1,138 Kendriya Vidyalayas, 3,011 Government Schools, 16,741 Independent Schools, 595 Jawahar Novodaya Vidyalayas and 14 Central Tibetan Schools.

Examinations CBSE conducts the final examinations for Class 10 and Class 12 every year in February and March. The results are announced by the end of May. The board earlier conducted the AIEEE Examination for admission to undergraduate courses in engineering and architecture in colleges across India, however, the AIEEE exam was merged with the IIT-Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) in 2013. The standard examination is now called JEE (Main) and is henceforth conducted by National Testing Agency.

CBSE also conducted AIPMT (All India Pre-Medical Test) for admission to major medical colleges in India. In 2014, the conduct of the National Eligibility Test for the grant of a junior research fellowship and eligibility for an assistant professor in institutions of higher learning was outsourced to CBSE.

Apart from these tests, CBSE also conducts the Central Teacher Eligibility Test and the Class X optional proficiency test. With the addition of NET in 2014, the CBSE became the largest exam-conducting body in the world.

On 10 November 2017, the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, cleared a proposal to create a National Testing Agency (NTA) as the premier autonomous body for conducting entrance examinations in the country. Beginning in 2018, various exams previously conducted by the CBSE were transferred to the NTA, including National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate), Joint Entrance Examination – Main, National Eligibility Test, Central Universities Common Entrance Test and others.

In 2025, CBSE decided to conduct two board examinations from the academic year 2025–26 to ease the pressure on students. CBSE has also rationalised much of the content in its syllabus after the COVID period to ease the children

Promotion criteria

Class 10

For promotion from the Secondary level (Class IX-X) to the Senior Secondary level (Class XI-XII), a student must obtain, for all subjects (or best five if six subjects are taken), 33% overall, without any minimum theory mark requirement. Initially, the passing criteria were set such that a student had to get 33% in both the theory and practical components. However, an exemption was initially granted to students who wrote the exam in 2018, as they had gone through the old CCE system the previous year. However, CBSE later extended this relief for students writing the exam from 2019 and later as well. Students who do not manage to pass up to two subjects can write the compartment in those subjects in July. Those who fail a compartment or three or more subjects must retake all subjects taken the following year.

Class 12

For class 12 students, the promotion criteria are 33% overall, with 33% in "both" theory and practical examinations (if applicable). Students who do not pass exactly one subject can write the compartment for that subject in July. Those who fail a compartment, or who fail two subjects or more, must retake all subjects taken the next year.

Grading For the Class 10 and Class 12 exams, CBSE (along with the marks obtained) includes the positional grade, which is based on the average performance of students in that subject. Consequently, the cutoffs required to obtain a particular grade vary from year to year. +Grading system by CBSEGradeCriteriaA1Top 1/8 of passed students in that subjectA2Next 1/8 of passed students in that subjectB1Next 1/8 of passed students in that subjectB2Next 1/8 of passed students in that subjectC1Next 1/8 of passed students in that subjectC2Next 1/8 of passed students in that subjectD1Next 1/8 of passed students in that subjectD2Last 1/8 of passed students in that subjectEFailed students (in either theory, practical or overall)

The cutoffs required to obtain a particular grade in 2018 are listed below:Not publicly released by CBSE, but can be verified by looking at students' grades +Class 12 (2018)GradeEnglish CoreMathematicsChemistryPhysicsBiologyBiotechnologyEngineering DrawingComputer ScienceEconomicsAccountancyBusiness StudiesInformatics PracticesMultimedia/Web TechPsychologySociologyA18995919090959893928493949587A284848182849195888573839178B1787373757986928378657587828473B27263676974838978705967787966C16555636468768572635560797473C257466061628055496767D14542525455474557D23333Variable (33% theory and practical pass required) +Class 10 (2018)GradeEnglish Language & LiteratureMathematicsScienceSocial ScienceMalayalamHindiFrenchA192928790969397A287817682938895B183706774908392B278605866877887C173504958847282C266424149806574D156343441735462D233 (minimum for all subjects)

During CCE During 2010–2017, when CBSE implemented a CCE (Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation) for Class X students, only the grades obtained by the student were mentioned in the report card in a 9-point grading scale, which translates as follows: +Former grading scale (CCE)GradeCriteriaA1>90%A281–90%B171–80%B261–70%C151–60%C241–50%D33–40%E121–32%E20–20%

Results

2016 +Number of (passed) students obtaining a particular CGPA in Class 10 by genderCGPAMALEFEMALETOTAL1085,31683,2251,68,5419.826,31324,54550,8589.628,52224,22352,7459.435,58725,88261,4699.233,67425,17158,845935,16726,27061,4378.836,45326,15462,6078.637,53225,94563,4778.438,59025,38363,9738.237,68124,66362,344838,24824,21762,4657.838,56023,60762,1677.637,80422,68060,4847.436,81421,41058,2247.235,28720,49755,784734,75519,80354,5586.833,82418,67752,5016.632,09917,55949,6586.429,77416,42846,2026.227,36715.50942,876625,54214,47240,0145.822,56813,09435,6625.618,12611,12829,2545.413,2068,68421,8905.29,1206,14215,26256,1164,03610,1524.83,5822,3605,9424.62,0741,1823,2564.48935271,4204.22941514454503181TOTAL8,40,9385,73,65514,14,593AVERAGE7.918.148.00 +Number of (passed) students obtaining a particular CGPA in Class 10 by exam modeCGPABOARDSCHOOLTOTAL1092,81675,7251,68,5419.832,37218,48650,8589.632,11520,63052,7459.432,30229,16761,4699.233,72525,12058,845936,36125,07661,4378.836,67325,93462,6078.636,02627,45163,4778.435,23228,74163,9738.235,36226,98262,344835,18527,28062,4657.833,96928,19862,1677.631,82528,65960,4847.429,83628,38858,2247.228,04527,73955,784726,23828,32054,5586.823,91328,58852,5016.621,28428,37449,6586.418,78227,42046,2026.216,78526,09142,876614,36525,64940,0145.812,15023,51235,6625.69,35119,90329,2545.46,86115,02921,8905.24,97810,28415,26253,6286,52410,1524.82,2783,6645,9424.61,2362,0203,2564.45498711,4204.21373084454176481TOTAL7,24,3966,90,19714,14,593AVERAGE8.217.798.00

Moderation

It is the practice adopted by CBSE of "tweaking" candidates' marks to account for paper difficulties and variations. This has been criticized in the past for inflating students' marks in a hyper-competitive society where even one mark counts, and CBSE is in the process of ending it. In 2017, CBSE informed that it would end moderation entirely, but its decision was challenged by a court case at the Delhi High Court, which ruled that moderation should continue for that year.