The Board exams for the students of class 10 and 12 have been postponed by a week, due to the elections in five states, and will now start from March 9, Central Board of Secondary Exams (CBSE) announced on Monday.

The exams were earlier scheduled to commence from March 1 and the decision was taken keeping in mind the upcoming assembly elections in five states, during which many teachers will remain occupied with the election duty. 

"The board has given careful consideration to the situation before postponing the exams by a week which will now allow the students to get more time for the preparation and ensure uninterrupted sequence of examinations," CBSE said in a statement. 

"(It) has made all possible efforts to maintain reasonable time gap between the major papers and also ensured that the students appearing for Joint Engineering Exam (JEE) and upcoming National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) complete the CBSE examinations ahead of these entrance exams," it added. 

The exams for class 10 will be held between March 9 and April 10, while for class 12 they will take place between March 9 and April 29. 

Over 10 lakh and 16 lakh students will appear for class 12 and class 10 exams, respectively, this year. 

Punjab, Uttrakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Goa, and Manipur, will go to polls between February 4 and March 8.