The Central Board of Secondary Education on Wednesday announced that examinations for students of Class 10 and Class 12 in skill education (vocational) subjects will begin in the second half of February 2019. However, the examinations for all core subjects such as mathematics, language, physics, chemistry, history and others will be held from March.

“There are 40 vocational subjects being offered in Class 12, and 15 in Class 10,” the board’s press release said. “There are also certain other related subjects like typography and computer applications, web applications, graphics etc...these will also be included in the February exams.”

The CBSE said it has decided to hold the vocational exams in February following a July 11 Delhi High Court order, which said that the board exam results, including the results of re-evaluation should be used while determining the cut-off date for admissions to colleges under the University of Delhi.

The board said at present exams begin in March and extend for seven weeks to accommodate all possible combinations of subjects. “Due to this, results go on to the fourth week of May, and the re-evaluation process gets completed only in July end,” the board said. “By this time, admissions in Delhi University and many other universities are almost completed.” The CBSE said the commencement of vocational exams in February will facilitate early declaration of results.

The CBSE said that the full exam schedule will be put up on the board’s website next week.