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The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has introduced major updates to the board exams for classes 10 and 12 for the 2025 academic session. To help ease academic pressure on students, the board will reduce the syllabus by 10 to 15 per cent.
CBSE’s Regional Officer announced this at the ‘Bridging the Gap’ Principals Summit.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has announced significant changes to the board exams for classes 10 and 12 for the 2025 academic year. To alleviate the academic pressure on students, the board has decided to reduce the syllabus by 10 to 15 per cent. This reduction aims to allow students to focus more on important concepts and promote better understanding rather than rote learning. The announcement was made by Vikas Kumar Agrawal, CBSE’s Regional Officer in Bhopal, during the ‘Bridging the Gap’ Principals Summit at the Brilliant Convention Centre in Indore.
Agrawal explained that the goal of this syllabus reduction is to ease the burden on students, helping them concentrate on key topics to gain a deeper understanding of the subjects.
More Changes In CBSE 2025
Agrawal further outlined upcoming changes to the CBSE exam evaluation system, which will soon adopt a revised structure:
Under the new plan, internal assessments will hold significant weight, comprising 40 per cent of a student’s final grade. The remaining 60 per cent will be determined by traditional written exams. This shift aims to foster a more balanced evaluation approach, providing students with additional avenues to showcase their understanding and skills.
In another progressive change, CBSE will introduce open-book exams for select subjects, including English Literature and Social Science. This format is designed to stimulate critical thinking and promote application-based learning by allowing students to refer to their textbooks during the exam. The goal of these open-book assessments is to evaluate students’ abilities to analyse, interpret, and effectively use knowledge rather than memorizing facts, pushing them to engage with content on a deeper level.
Looking toward future academic sessions, Agrawal confirmed that for 2024-25, there will still be a single board examination for both 10 and 12 grades. Beginning with the 2025-26 academic year, CBSE will reintroduce the concept of two-term board exams, with exams being held twice per year. This modification aligns with CBSE’s long-term plan to create a more consistent evaluation process. By offering two-term exams from 2026 onwards, students will gain additional opportunities to demonstrate their learning progress over the academic year, while CBSE works on finalizing the logistical aspects of this two-term system. This shift represents a step towards a more flexible and student-friendly approach to evaluation in the CBSE curriculum.
