As part of the reforms being introduced in the Intermediate education, the academic calendar for 2025-26 is being revised.

The academic year for Intermediate students will begin on April 1, instead of June 1, and admissions for first year will start from April 7, instead of June 1, said Minister for Human Resource Minister (HRD) Nara Lokesh.

Addressing a review meeting with officials of the Board of Intermediate Education (BIE) on Thursday (March 13), he said the final examinations for both first and second year will start from the last week of February 2026, instead of March 2026, for the academic year 2025-26. The Minister said the reforms were approved based on public opinion received from January 8 to January 26 to enhance quality, accessibility and governance in Intermediate education.

Moving towards digitalisation of tabulation registers, the Minister said the BIE results data from 1973 to 2003 will be digitised to ensure seamless online access through Digilocker and WhatsApp governance. It has been decided to introduce an elective subject as second subject (out of five total subjects) to increase flexibility in subject selection and encourage multi-disciplinary learning. Elective subjects will be introduced as second subject from the academic year 2025-26 for first year students. They can now choose an elective as their second subject from 24 options across languages, sciences and humanities.

To meet the public demand for introduction of M.Bi.P.C, it has been decided to introduce the option of offering mathematics and biology as additional sixth subject for BiPC and MPC students respectively from the upcoming academic year of 2025-26.

Curriculum revision

Revised syllabus and textbooks for 14 subjects (including science, humanities and languages) will be implemented for first year students from the academic year 2025-26. Merger of subjects is yet another new feature. Mathematics-A and Mathematics-B have been merged into a single subject of ‘mathematics’. Botany and zoology have been merged into a single subject of ‘biology’ for first year students. MPC and BiPC marking pattern has accordingly been changed to ensure equal weightage to all subjects in the combination.

Competitive Coaching

Comprehensive competitive exam coaching material will be prepared by BIE to train students for common entrance tests such as EAPCET, JEE and NEET, and it would be made available in the BIE portal. The coaching material will also be provided to students of government junior college for free.

Marking system would henceforth be made competency-based. Assessments will be made more competency-based. Ten per cent of the Intermediate Public Examination questions for Science and Humanities will be ‘compulsory one-mark questions’ in the form of multiple choice questions (MCQs) or fill-in-the-blanks, from the next academic year.

The government has planned to collaborate with the National Council for Vocational Education and Training (NCVET) for setting standards, developing comprehensive regulations and improving the vocational syllabus as per NSQF level to improve the skilling ecosystem. The government will opt for industry tie-ups to revise the curriculum of the vocational courses, he said.