Board exams for classes 10 and 12 conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will now be held from July 1 to 15. The exams had earlier been postponed due to the nationwide lockdown. The Union Minister for Human Resources Development Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' made the announcement on Friday.

"The students have been impatiently waiting for the schedule for pending exams. It has been decided today that the exams will be conducted from July 1 to 15," he said.

According to a report in the Indian Express, CBSE will conduct class 10 exams only for students of north east Delhi, who could not take their exams due to riots over the Citizenship Amendment Act. For students of class 10 in the rest of India, no exams will be conducted.

The results of CBSE’s class 12 exams will be published before the results of IIT-Joint Entrance Examinations (JEE) Advanced.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) had announced the revised dates for important national entrance examinations for MBBS admissions and admissions into the IITs and the NITs on Tuesday.

According to the announcement, the National Entrance cum Eligibility Test (NEET) will be held on July 26, while JEE Mains will be held between July 18 and July 23. JEE Advanced will be held in August, for which the dates will be announced later. This year, more than 15 lakh students have registered for NEET, while over nine lakh students have registered for JEE Mains, which is also the qualifying exam for JEE Advanced.

Educational institutions across the country have been shut since March 16 in an attempt to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus. India implemented a total 21-day shutdown on March 25, which has now been extended for the third lockdown until May 17. 

(With PTI inputs)