The Central Board of Secondary Education has discarded its plan to advance Class 10 and Class 12 board examinations to February, and will instead hold it in March. CBSE spokesperson Rama Sharma confirmed it to Scroll.in.

Earlier this year, there were reports that the board was examining a proposal to hold the exams in February to give examiners more time for evaluation. However, in July, Minister of State of Human Resources Development Upendra Kushwaha had said in the Rajya Sabha that there was no such proposal moved by the CBSE.

The CBSE is looking at making the duration of the board exams shorter. “Due to Holi, the exam might not start from March 1 but these things are being finalised,” the Hindustan Times quoted an unidentified CBSE official as saying. “We are trying to conduct the exam in a shorter time period to give the evaluation process more time.”

In December 2016, the CBSE had made it mandatory for Class 10 students to appear for board exams starting March 2018. Earlier the students were free to choose between a board examination in Class 10 and a school-based evaluation.