Class 10 and Class 12 board exams have been rescheduled to begin on March 9 in view of the Assembly elections in five states, the Central Board of Secondary Education announced on Monday. “We took the situation into careful consideration before postponing the exams by a week, which will now allow students more time to prepare,” the board said, according to ANI.

CBSE said in a statement that “all possible efforts” were taken to ensure that there was a “reasonable time gap” between the major papers. The board said it also took steps to make sure that students appearing for the Joint Engineering Exam and National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test complete the board exams ahead of these entrance tests.

The Class 10 papers are scheduled till April 10, while the Class 12 ones will continue till April 29.

The news comes a day after reports that the board exams will not be delayed because of the upcoming Assembly elections. Polling is slated to begin from February 4 in five states – Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa, and Manipur. The votes will be counted on on March 11.

On January 6, the Council for Indian School Certificate Examination had said that it will reschedule some Indian School Certificate and Indian Certificate of Secondary Education examinations because the dates clashed with those of the plls. ISC exams were slated to begin on February 6, while Class 10 students of the board had their exams from February 27.