CBSE class 10 results 2026 declared early - but UAE students face a different reality
For Grade 10 students across the UAE and the wider region, Wednesday brought the surprise announcement that their CBSE board results were in — weeks earlier than anyone expected. But while the early declaration has reduced some of the waiting anxiety, for many UAE-based students the results are anything but final.
Results released ahead of schedule
India's Central Board of Secondary Education declared the Class 10 board examination 2026 (Phase 1) results on Wednesday, earlier than its traditional May release window. The early declaration was driven by the board's need to schedule Phase 2 improvement exams in May, requiring results to be published first.
Students can access their results through the official websites cbse.gov.in and results.cbse.nic.in, as well as through the UMANG app and DigiLocker. School principals in the UAE confirmed that results have been released for students here, with students and teachers actively checking the DigiLocker app and official portals to access them.
In the UAE, 13,669 Grade 10 students were enrolled for the examination this year, according to Dr Ram Shankar, Professor and Director of the CBSE Regional Office and Centre of Excellence in Dubai. Globally, more than 2.5 million students sat the crucial exams.
A new policy - and a war-related complication
The results declared this week are provisional under a two-phase exam policy introduced by CBSE for the first time in 2026. Under this new system, all Class 10 students — in India and abroad — are being offered the opportunity to sit improvement examinations in up to three subjects in May and potentially raise their scores. Final mark sheets will only be issued after those second examinations conclude.
Adding another layer of complexity for UAE students specifically, CBSE cancelled all remaining Class 10 board examinations in the Middle East on March 5, 2026, following a critical review of the security situation caused by the US-Israel-Iran war across Bahrain, Iran, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Only papers held between February 17 and February 28 went ahead successfully, covering 44 subjects in total.
To calculate results for the missed papers, CBSE applied a category-wise formula. Students who sat four papers had missing subjects filled in using the average of their best three. Those who completed only three had remaining subjects calculated from the average of their best two, and students who managed just two examinations had those two averaged across all remaining papers.
What this means for students and schools
With improvement exams now available, schools in the UAE anticipate that a significant number of students will choose to sit the Phase 2 examination if they are not satisfied with their Phase 1 results. Given that any student who ranks highest now could still improve further through the second exam, schools will not be in a position to declare top achievers at this stage.
In addition, in a first for the board worldwide, no hard-copy mark sheets will be issued this cycle — a change that applies to all CBSE students globally, not just those in the UAE or the Gulf.
Students have five days from the date results are declared to apply and submit their List of Candidates forms, indicating their chosen subjects for the improvement examination. Educators in the UAE are urging families not to read too much into the current figures until the full process is complete.
Sources:
Gulf News — "CBSE class 10 results 2026 declared: Here's how to check scores" by Anupam Varma and Sajila Saseendran (April 15, 2026). Read the full article.
Khaleej Times — "CBSE Class 10 results declared early; uncertainty for UAE students" by Nandini Sircar (April 15, 2026). Read the full article.
