बेबाक · Editorial
CBSE Shows Exam Calendars Can Be Planned Early; State Recruitment Bodies Should Follow
A board that plans its exam schedule months ahead proves predictability is possible. Recruitment exams, where crowds and delays are far larger, need the same discipline.
A timetable, on time
The Central Board of Secondary Education has released its Class 10 and Class 12 date sheets for 2027 well ahead of schedule. Examinations will begin on February 16, 2027, and all of them will start at 10:30 am. The board says it has accounted for major entrance tests and has left gaps between commonly paired subjects. Practical exam dates are also out, along with a separate update for winter-bound schools. Released this early, a timetable is something families can actually plan around.
Why scale makes it matter
The numbers explain the value. More than 26.5 lakh Class 10 students and more than 19.8 lakh Class 12 students, in India and abroad, are registered. That is over 46 lakh young people. For a cohort that size, a clash with an entrance test or two heavy papers on back-to-back days is a real cost, not a small inconvenience. It means lost preparation, coaching fees spent at the wrong time, and avoidable anxiety. Building the calendar around those pressures is ordinary competence, and it deserves to be recognised as such.
The other exam hall
The harder test comes after school. In Maharashtra, around 12 lakh candidates have applied for the MPSC Group C Combined Preliminary Examination 2026, which advertised more than 5,000 vacancies. That is more than 200 applicants for every post. The state government has approved a one-year age relaxation for recruitment exams. A panel has also proposed more than 16,000 MPSC Group C vacancies. In Rajasthan, the Rajasthan SET Result 2026 was declared on November 6 on uok.ac.in, and 9,191 candidates qualified. These are not marginal stories. They show how many educated young people depend on public examinations for their first job.
Both sides, fairly
There is a fair defence of the state measures. Age relaxation is humane. Candidates whose eligibility ran out while recruitment cycles slipped should not lose their chance because of administrative delay. Proposing more posts is also better than leaving offices understaffed. Recruitment is also harder to schedule than a school exam. Vacancies must first be counted. In Bihar, for example, updated details of vacant positions have been sought from all 38 districts before recruitment to more than 11,000 health department posts can begin. But the age relaxation carries an implicit admission. Relief of this kind is often needed because recruitment has run late. A relaxation helps the candidates who were kept waiting. It does nothing to stop the next cohort from waiting as well. A vacancy that exists but is not advertised or filled hurts twice: the public service goes undelivered, and a qualified citizen goes without work.
Predictability as policy
This newspaper's view is that the CBSE approach should become the standard for every public examination body. Dates should be announced early. Clashes should be designed out in advance. Scale should be published openly. CBSE has shown this can be done for more than 46 lakh students. A state commission handling 12 lakh applicants has little reason not to manage the same. Growth that does not reach the young graduate's desk is not growth that counts, and public recruitment is one of the clearest routes to that desk.
The way forward
State public service commissions should publish an annual recruitment calendar at the start of each year. It should list advertisement, examination and result dates, and be released alongside a verified vacancy count. Any departure from the calendar should require a public explanation. Proposed posts, such as the more than 16,000 MPSC Group C vacancies, should move to formal advertisement within a stated deadline. Age relaxations should be a rare exception, not a regular substitute for timely hiring. If school students can be told their February schedule in advance, job seekers can be told theirs too.
An age relaxation helps those who were kept waiting. It does not stop the next cohort from waiting too.
What this editorial rests on
Drawn from our live multi-newsroom feed — read the reporting at source.
An editorial is the considered opinion of the Aad Tak desk, argued from the sourced reporting above and written under our published persona, बेबाक. We name institutions, not parties. If we are wrong, we will say so. How we work →