The conflict that has broken out in West Asia after the US and Israel attacked Iran, prompted the CBSE to cancel class 10 and 12 board exams across seven countries in the region. India’s largest national school board had around 52,000 students registered for the class 10 and 12 exams in these countries.All eyes are now on the method that the Board will now use to arrive at the final scores for students who have not been able to give all their papers. For the CBSE, this isn’t the first time that exams have been disrupted – the COVID pandemic threw exam schedules out of gear in 2020 and 2021, and a method of declaring results had to be arrived at then too.What has happened with the exams so far, and who all are affected?The class 10 and 12 CBSE board exams began on February 17. With the US and Israel attacking Iran on February 28, and the conflict spreading to other countries in West Asia, the Board initially announced on March 1 that board exams scheduled to take place the next day would be postponed across seven countries – the UAE, Iran, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, and Saudi Arabia. With no let-up in the conflict, the Board continued to postpone papers scheduled for March, before announcing on March 5 for class 10, and on March 15 for class 12, that all remaining exams would be cancelled.Around 29,000 class 10 and 23,000 class 12 students had registered for the exams in these countries. In the UAE, around 13,669 class 10 students, and 10,918 class 12 students were expected to appear, while this figure was 3052 class 10 students and 2578 class 12 students in Kuwait. In Bahrain, around 1881 class 10 and 1383 class 12 students had registered for the exam.CBSE schools in these countries largely cater to the Indian diaspora, and follow the same curriculum as schools in the country. Going by the Board’s list of affiliated schools, there are 220 CBSE-affiliated schools in these seven countries, including a Kendriya Vidyalaya in Iran’s capital Tehran. The highest number of 110 schools is in the UAE, followed by 41 in Saudi Arabia, 22 in Kuwait, 20 in Qatar, 18 in Oman, and 8 in Bahrain.The number of CBSE-affiliated schools in these countries has grown from a figure of 166 a decade ago. The rise in numbers is largely in the UAE, where there were 77 CBSE schools in 2016, and in Qatar, where there were only 9.What assessment scheme has the Board developed now?Story continues below this adFor class 10, the Board announced on March 18 a new method to arrive at the final scores, while it is still working on developing an assessment scheme for class 12.Class 10 students appear for exams in five main subjects – two languages, science, social science, and math – with some choosing a sixth like a skill subject. The result is calculated based on the best five scores. Depending on their choice of subjects, some students in the affected West Asian countries may have appeared for four exams, while others may have appeared in fewer subjects.For the papers that the student has not appeared in, the marks will be the average of the best scores in the exams that the student has given, a CBSE official said. For instance, if a student has given four papers, the score of the fifth paper will be calculated by taking the average of the best three exams the student gave, the official added. With this, a final result will be declared. For students who have given three exams, the average of the best two scores will be considered, and for those who have appeared in two papers, the average of the two will be taken.The results of students in these countries will be declared along with the rest.Will students have another chance to attempt their papers? Story continues below this adThis year, the Board is conducting a second set of exams for class 10 in May, giving students an opportunity to improve on their performance. Students can take the exam a second time in a maximum of three subjects out of science, social science, math, and languages. The Board had declared earlier, however, that only students who have appeared for at least three exams in the first set of papers can appear for the improvement exams in May.Students in the West Asian countries who have missed their papers will be allowed to give the improvement exams in May. The official said that once the results have been declared, these students will be considered to be on par with students who have given all their papers, giving students who may have missed their papers also a chance to give the second set of exams.Students who missed their social science exam that was scheduled for March 7, for instance, will be able to give the exam for the subject in May, provided they stick to the policy of only giving a maximum of three improvement papers, the official added.What is the precedent in such instances where exams are cancelled? Story continues below this adCOVID-pandemic related restrictions prompted the Board to initially postpone and eventually cancel exams in 2020 and 2021. In 2020, students had written some papers, and a scheme was developed to arrive at the score for the remaining papers. Even before the COVID-related disruptions, exams had been postponed for students in riot-hit northeast Delhi, and later cancelled.The method that the CBSE used for class 10 and 12 students in 2020 is the same as the one that has now been announced for class 10 students in West Asia – the average of the best marks obtained was awarded in the subjects that the student missed. For some class 12 students in northeast Delhi who were able to give only one or two exams before the cancellation, their results were declared based on the papers they gave and their performance in internal assessments and projects.In 2021, no board exam was held, and a separate method was announced to declare the results. For class 10, this was based on unit tests, mid-term exams, and pre-boards that the schools conducted. Students were marked out of a total of 80 (the remaining 20 for internal assessments), with 10 marks based on unit tests, 30 marks based on mid-term exams, and 40 marks based on pre-boards.For class 12, results were arrived at using marks from unit tests, pre-boards and mid-term exams in class 12, final exam marks in class 11, and average of the best three subject scores in class 10. The class 10 marks were used then to arrive at the class 12 result since “this was the only public examination conducted by the Board…when…examinations were conducted in a regular standardised manner…,” according to the Board. The Board had decided against using only unit test/mid-term/pre-board marks since these were school-based assessments and online examinations that were not held in similar settings for all students, and were, therefore, not standardised exams that can truly reflect the students’ performance.