Dubai: More than 13,600 CBSE Grade 10 students in the UAE are about to receive their long-awaited results but there is a crucial catch. The scores coming out are not final, and the student sitting at the top of the class today may not hold that position a month from now.Schools and educators across the UAE are urging families not to read too much into the provisional figures, even as the results are expected imminently on the DigiLocker platform. In a first for the Board, no hard-copy mark sheets will be issued.

This change applies not just to the UAE or the Gulf but to CBSE students worldwide.Why results aren't finalThe situation stems from a two-part policy introduced by CBSE from 2026 which is entirely new. For the first time, the Board is offering all Class 10 students, in India and abroad, the opportunity to sit improvement examinations in up to three subjects and potentially boost their scores. Under this policy, the results declared now are provisional.

The final mark sheet will only be issued after the second board examinations, expected to be held in May."If the students are happy with the result, this is final for them. But the final mark list will come after the second exam happens," explained Dr Pramod Mahajan, Director-Principal of Sharjah Indian School and CBSE City Coordinator for schools in Sharjah, Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah.This improvement window, not the war-related disruptions, is the primary reason the results being declared now carry a provisional status. As per CBSE rules, students will be given five days after results are declared to apply and submit their List of Candidates (LOC) forms, including their choice of subjects for the second examination.Scores without recognitionThere is another layer to the story that will matter to high achievers: CBSE has not declared national toppers or published merit lists for the past three years.

The Board has shifted entirely to a competency-based assessment model, doing away with the merit certificates that once formally recognised distinction."From CBSE, there is no India topper, there is no merit list," said Dr Mahajan. Yet, schools in the UAE continued to celebrate their high scorers internally.And even that school-level spotlight is risky right now, given the provisional nature of the results. If a student scoring 98 per cent today opts for the improvement exam and pushes their marks higher, any announcement made before then would need to be revised."Suppose my school topper has got 98 per cent, and she applies for the second exam for improvement.

She makes it 99.5 with that. And if today we say she is the topper, then after one month, we have to say, no, no, no, she's not a topper; somebody else is. There is no authenticity for that topper concept based on this result because this result is not final,” Dr Mahajan explained.New assessment due to warThe UAE's 13,669 enrolled Grade 10 students, previously confirmed by Dr Ram Shankar, Professor and Director of the CBSE Regional Office and Centre of Excellence in Dubai, are also navigating a separate, war-related complexity in how their marks were calculated.India's 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 the 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.

Students who managed just two examinations had those two averaged across all remaining papers.Many likely to reappearWith improvement exams now firmly on the table, schools across the UAE expect a significant number of students to opt in, as reported by Gulf News earlier.Dr Mahajan had earlier said that around 40 to 55 per cent of students in Sharjah, Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah had indicated interest in appearing for the improvement examinations. In Dubai, numbers were expected to be lower, with some schools projecting around 30 per cent of students opting to reappear in one or two subjects.However, a clear picture in this regard will emerge once schools submit the LoC appearing for the second exam in five days.Dr Mahajan reminded that second exam will be conducted from the same centres as the original, meaning students who have relocated to India but wish to sit any paper again will need to return to the UAE.Classes already under wayIn the meantime, Grade 11 classes have already begun for students in the UAE, as schools in the region traditionally start the new academic year before Grade 10 board results are out.Dr Mahajan said reiterated that schools would support students with remedial and enrich