New Delhi, Feb 26 : The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Wednesday issued a clarification refuting the claims that Punjabi was removed from its list of regional language subjects for Class 10.

Earlier in the day, allegations of removal of Punjabi from Class 10 subjects list by CBSE triggered an uproar in Punjab, prompting parties such as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) to condemn the move

Refuting the allegations levelled against it, CBSE issued a clarification and said: "No subject has been removed from Class 10. All other subjects, including Punjabi will remain as before."

The allegations came after the CBSE issued a draft policy on Tuesday for the proposed Dual Board Exams for Class 10 from the 2025-26 academic session under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

The board has made this draft policy public for feedback on Tuesday. The AAP, Congress and SAD have raised questions regarding this move by the Central government and alleged that Punjabi as a subject is missing in the CBSE's draft policy.

According to CBSE Controller of Examinations Sanyam Bhardwaj, there will be no change in the current list of subjects of the board.

"All the subjects currently being made available will continue as before. These subjects will be in both the stages of board examination," Bhardwaj added.

According to CBSE, the subjects list given in the draft in this regard is only indicative.

On Tuesday evening, CBSE had released the draft to conduct board exams twice a year. The draft of the new examination system is available for review on the official website of CBSE.

All stakeholders, including schools, teachers, parents, students and general public can give their feedback on the proposed policy.

CBSE said that the draft policy has been developed after extensive discussion and has been uploaded on the CBSE website.

Stakeholders can provide feedback on the draft policy till March 9, 2025. The responses will be examined and the policy will be finalised later.

The CBSE has announced major changes in the class 10 board examination system from next year.

According to this rule, for the first time every year, class 10 board examinations will start from February 15. The examinations for the first time will be completed by March 6. The second phase of the board exam will be conducted from May 5 to May 20.

The advantage of the new system will be that students will be able to appear in the examination for the second time as per their wish. However, if they want to appear for the exam only once, they can choose this option.

/IANS