The Central Board of Secondary Education has approved a proposal allowing “students with special needs” to use laptops to write their Class 10 and Class 12 board examinations from this academic year.

The candidates will have to submit a certificate from a registered medical practitioner or a qualified psychological consultant citing the grounds for recommending the use of a computer. The CBSE’s superintendent for the examination centre concerned will examine the case based on merit and obtain an approval from the CBSE headquarters.

“The use of computer shall be limited to only for typing answers, for viewing the questions in the enlarged font size, for listening the question items,” the CBSE order read. “The computer or the laptop brought by the candidate will not have any internet connection so as to maintain the sanctity of the examination.”

The centre superintendent print out the candidate’s answers and submit them for evaluation, the CBSE said.

The board examinations for both Class 10 and Class 12 will begin from March 5. While exams for Class 10 will go on till April 4, the Class 12 students will have their exams till April 13. More than 16 lakh students have registered for Class 10 exams while 11,86,000 students will appear for Class 12 exams.