India Education Headlines: NEET Deadline, CBSE & CUET PG March 2, 2026

Mar 2, 2026

Published: March 2, 2026

NEET UG 2026 Registration Ends March 8 – Last Week To Apply

NEET 2026 Application Window And Exam Schedule

The National Testing Agency (NTA) is in the final week of NEET UG 2026 registrations, with the application window open from February 8, 2026, to March 8, 2026, up to 9:00 pm on the official website neet.nta.nic.in. As per the NEET (UG) 2026 Information Bulletin, candidates can submit the online application form until the evening deadline and complete fee payment up to 11:50 pm on March 8, 2026. The NEET UG 2026 exam will be conducted in offline (pen-and-paper) mode on May 3, 2026 (Sunday), from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm, across centres in India and selected foreign locations.

The exam will follow the updated pattern notified for NEET UG 2026, with candidates answering 180 multiple-choice questions from Physics, Chemistry, and Biology within 180 minutes. Medical aspirants are advised to complete their registration well before March 8, 2026, to avoid last-minute technical issues and to carefully verify personal details, category, and exam city preferences before final submission. With the correction window scheduled from March 10 to March 12, 2026, only limited edits will be allowed after the last date, and incomplete or unpaid applications will not be accepted by NTA. Students should regularly check neet.nta.nic.in and nta.ac.in for updates on the information bulletin, application status, and subsequent admit card release.

CUET PG 2026 City Intimation Slip Out For March 6–7 Exams

How To Check CUET PG 2026 Exam City And Next Steps

For postgraduate aspirants, the National Testing Agency has released the CUET PG 2026 exam city intimation slips for candidates scheduled to appear on March 6 and March 7, 2026. The slips are available on the official portals exams.nta.nic.in/cuet-pg and nta.ac.in, and candidates can access their allotted exam city by logging in with their application number and password. As clarified by NTA, this document only informs candidates of the exam city and shift; the detailed admit card with exam centre address and reporting time will be issued closer to the examination date.

CUET PG 2026 will be conducted between March 6 and March 27, 2026, across 44 computer-based test shifts of 90 minutes each, covering 157 subjects for approximately 4,11,000 unique registered candidates. Candidates were allowed to select up to four test papers, and the exam will generally be held in bilingual mode (English and Hindi), with some subjects offered only in English or Sanskrit as specified in the NTA schedule. Aspirants taking the March 6 and March 7 papers should download and print their city intimation slip immediately, plan travel and accommodation if needed, and monitor the official CUET PG portal daily for admit card updates and any shift-specific instructions issued by NTA.

CTET February 2026: Bihar Re-Exam On March 1, Answer Key Expected Soon

CTET 2026 Re-Exam And Provisional Answer Key Timeline

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) conducted a re-exam for the Central Teacher Eligibility Test (CTET) February 2026 Paper 2 on March 1, 2026, for candidates from two centres in Vaishali (Hajipur), Bihar where the paper scheduled on February 7 was cancelled due to administrative reasons. Only candidates allotted to St. John’s Academy and Lakshya International Academy in Vaishali were eligible for this re-examination, as clarified in CBSE’s official notice. The main CTET 2026 exam for the 21st edition was held on February 7 and February 8, 2026, in offline mode across the country.

With the exam now over, the CTET February 2026 answer key is widely expected “soon”, with several education portals and national dailies indicating that the provisional key is likely to be released around March 2, 2026 on ctet.nic.in, though CBSE has not issued a fixed date. Once uploaded, candidates will have to log in at ctet.nic.in via the “Login: CTET Feb 2026 Answer Key” link using their registration ID and password to download their provisional answer key and individual response sheets. CBSE will then open an objection window, where candidates may challenge specific questions on payment of a prescribed fee per challenge before a final answer key and result are declared, tentatively in April 2026. Teaching aspirants should therefore keep documents and question paper sets ready to quickly verify their responses and file any challenges within the stipulated time once the link goes live on ctet.nic.in.

CBSE Board Exams 2026: Middle East Papers Postponed And New Class 10 Pattern

Middle East Exam Postponement And Two-Exam Scheme From 2026

CBSE has postponed Class 10 and Class 12 board examinations scheduled for March 2, 2026, in several Middle East countries, citing regional security conditions. A public notice dated March 1, 2026, published on cbse.gov.in under “Board Examinations Class X and Class XII in the Middle East Regions – reg.” confirms that the March 2 papers stand deferred and that the Board will review the situation on March 3, 2026, before deciding on exams slated from March 5 onwards. Students have been advised to stay in touch with their schools and rely only on official CBSE updates, after the Board also debunked a fake circular claiming widespread cancellation of Middle East exams.

Separately, CBSE has issued clarifications on its draft scheme to hold two board examinations for Class 10 each year from 2026 onwards, providing more flexible assessment opportunities for students. Recent circulars on the CBSE Hindi portal explain that from the 2026 cohort, students may appear in two board exams in an academic year, with the best performance counted, aligning with broader assessment reforms recommended under the National Education Policy. The Board has also announced live webcasts on board exam conduct and introduced on-screen marking (OSM) for Class 12 examinations, reflecting a broader push towards standardised evaluation and digital processes. Students and schools should periodically review examination circulars and Hindi-language notices uploaded on cbse.gov.in and cbseacademic.nic.in to track any further changes for the 2026 examination cycle.

Tamil Nadu Class 12 Board Exams Begin Today, SSLC From March 11

TN HSC 2026 Schedule, Centres And Official Websites

The Tamil Nadu Higher Secondary (Class 12) public examinations for the 2025–26 academic year commenced today, March 2, 2026, with more than 8.27 lakh students appearing across 3,412 centres in the state. As per the Directorate of Government Examinations (DGE), Tamil Nadu, the Class 12 board exams will continue until March 26, 2026, with exam timings from 10:00 am to 1:15 pm, including 15 minutes for reading the question paper. The official timetable and detailed subject-wise schedule were released earlier via a press meet and are available on dge.tn.gov.in, the state board’s official portal.

The Tamil Nadu SSLC (Class 10) examinations are scheduled from March 11, 2026, to April 6, 2026, also in offline, pen-and-paper mode. Careers360 and other education portals have reiterated that students should verify dates, subject combinations, and practical exam windows directly from the official DGE notifications. With both Class 10 and Class 12 exams overlapping much of March 2026, students are advised to plan revision around core subjects and strictly adhere to reporting times and exam-day instructions, particularly in districts where weather and traffic could impact travel to centres. Parents and school administrators should monitor dge.tn.gov.in and tnresults.nic.in for any subsequent communication regarding evaluation timelines and result dates for the 2026 board cohort.

Holi 2026: Extended School Holidays In North India, Exams To Continue As Scheduled

State-Wise Breaks And Impact On Board And Entrance Exams

Ahead of Holi celebrations, several states have announced school holidays that coincide with the March 2–4, 2026 period, impacting school schedules but not national-level board and entrance exams. In Uttar Pradesh, government schools will remain closed from March 2 to March 4, 2026, as per the state’s gazetted holiday calendar, effectively giving students a four-day break when combined with Sunday, March 1. Other states, including Bihar, Jharkhand, Delhi, Assam, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, have notified one- or two-day closures around Holika Dahan (March 3) and the main Holi festival (March 4), with some variations based on local calendars and district-level orders.

Crucially, the same circulars and media reports specify that national and international board examinations will continue as per pre-announced date sheets, and that only internal school examinations and routine classes may be rescheduled during the holiday window. This means CBSE, CISCE, state board public exams and central entrance tests that fall on these dates will generally proceed unless an explicit postponement is notified by the relevant board. Students preparing for CBSE, Tamil Nadu, or other state boards, as well as those revising for NEET, JEE Main Session 2, or CUET exams, should treat the holidays as an opportunity for focused study rather than assuming any automatic deferment of exam schedules. Schools have been directed in some states to clearly communicate any changes in internal assessment dates to avoid confusion among students and parents.

Delhi Government Sarvodaya Vidyalaya Admissions Open March 2–16 For Entry Classes

Who Can Apply For Nursery, KG And Class 1 Seats In Delhi

For school admissions, the Directorate of Education (DoE), Government of NCT of Delhi, is opening the admission process in entry-level classes (Nursery/Pre-school, KG/Pre-primary and Class 1) across all Government Sarvodaya Vidyalayas from March 2, 2026, to March 16, 2026. A recent circular from the School Branch, Old Secretariat, specifies that information on entry-level classes and the number of available seats must be displayed at the gate and notice boards of each Government Sarvodaya Vidyalaya, with application forms available on all working days during this period.

NDTV reports that admissions for Nursery, KG and Class 1 for the 2026–27 academic year will operate on neighbourhood-based priority, giving first preference to children residing within a 1 km radius of the Sarvodaya Vidyalaya, followed by those living within 3 km if seats remain available. Parents will be able to collect and submit forms at designated help desks, where teachers and School Management Committee members will assist with documentation and eligibility queries. The circular also reiterates that no child from vulnerable categories—including Divyang children, homeless or migrant children, or those in need of care and protection—can be denied provisional admission due to the temporary unavailability of documents at the time of application. Families should therefore visit their nearest Government Sarvodaya Vidyalaya between March 2 and March 16, 2026, to secure seats for entry classes well before the session begins.

JEE Main 2026 Session 2: Registration Closed, Focus Shifts To April 2–9 Exam

Key JEE Main April 2026 Dates For Engineering Aspirants

JEE Main 2026 Session 2 registration has concluded, with NTA keeping the application window open from February 1 to February 25, 2026, on jeemain.nta.nic.in. Shiksha and Careers360 report that the form correction window for Session 2 applications is scheduled from February 27 to February 28, 2026, allowing candidates a brief opportunity to fix errors in personal details, category, exam city choices and uploaded documents. According to the published JEE Main 2026 schedule, the Session 2 (April) exam will be conducted from April 2 to April 9, 2026, in multiple computer-based shifts.

With registrations closed as of late February, engineering aspirants now need to focus on intensive revision, mock tests and familiarity with the updated JEE Main pattern. Test preparation platforms indicate that NTA will release exam city intimation slips and admit cards closer to the April exam dates on the official JEE Main portal, and candidates must regularly check their registered email IDs and the website for these updates. Students targeting NITs, IIITs and other centrally funded technical institutions through JEE Main 2026 should also ensure that profile details match those used for state-level counselling portals, as discrepancies in names, categories, or photographs can delay admission later in the season.

CUET UG 2026: Applications Closed, National UG Entrance From May 11–31

What CUET UG 2026 Means For University Aspirants In March 2026

The Common University Entrance Test for Undergraduates (CUET UG) 2026 is now firmly on the calendar, with the National Testing Agency having opened applications on January 3, 2026 and closed the online registration window by January 30, 2026 (fee payment until January 31) via cuet.nta.nic.in. India Today Education notes that the CUET UG 2026 exam will be conducted in computer-based mode between May 11 and May 31, 2026, for admission to programmes in 47 Central Universities and more than 300 participating institutions, including state and private universities.

Although the application phase is over, March 2026 is a crucial preparation window for CUET UG aspirants, especially Class 12 students currently appearing in board exams. The CUET UG pattern emphasises domain-specific papers, language tests and a general test component, and NTA has indicated that details on city intimation slips, admit cards, answer keys, and results will be uploaded in due course on cuet.nta.nic.in. Students planning admissions to undergraduate programmes for 2026–27 must therefore balance board exam schedules in March with targeted practice for CUET UG sections, using official sample papers and previous-year questions from major education portals. University-bound candidates should also track the individual admission pages of Central and participating universities, as counselling schedules, merit lists and cut-offs will be released separately after CUET UG 2026 results are announced.

Telangana Announces AI-Integrated School Curriculum And Free Breakfast From 2026–27

Major State Education Policy Reforms For School Students

In a significant state-level education policy development, Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy has announced that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be integrated into the school curriculum from the 2026–27 academic year, alongside a major expansion of student welfare schemes. Reviewing the education department, the Chief Minister directed officials to roll out short-term AI training for teachers and to introduce AI-based courses in polytechnics and advanced technology centres, while phasing out outdated programmes. Media reports highlight that government school students across Classes 1 to 12 will also receive free breakfast and milk (sourced from Vijaya Dairy), along with uniforms, shoes, socks, stationery and school kits under the new policy framework.

The state government plans to establish around 100 new Telangana Public Schools with infrastructure comparable to high-end private institutions, positioning government schools as “symbols of quality education”. A draft state education policy, presented by the Telangana Education Commission, draws inspiration from global best practices, and will now be opened for public feedback before finalisation by a high-level committee. For students and parents in Telangana, these reforms signal that from 2026–27 onward, school education will blend foundational learning with AI literacy and expanded nutritional support, potentially reshaping classroom experience and resource availability in government schools. Stakeholders are advised to watch the Telangana education department’s notifications and official state government channels for detailed implementation guidelines, school lists and timelines.