BHUBANESWAR: Nearly four lakh Plus II students have registered themselves to appear for the Annual Higher Secondary Examination (AHSE) 2026, informed the Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE) on Monday.

CHSE controller of exams Prasanta Kumar Parida said a total of 3,98,582 students including 24,672 ex-regulars have completed the form fill-up to appear for the Plus II exams.

These include 2,54,326 students in arts stream, 24,368 in commerce, 1,14,001 in science and 5,887 in vocational education stream who have completed their form fill-up.

A CHSE official said the council has planned to release the AHSE-2026 schedule on December 3. The exam is expected to begin after mid-February next year.

As per the new guidelines notified by the CHSE recently, Class XII students in higher secondary schools are also required to clear their internal assessment and project examination papers compulsorily in order to qualify for the AHSE.

The 20-mark internal assessment and 10-mark project examination will be held for the Class XII students of all streams at higher secondary school level from December 22 to 31.

Students who fail to appear any of these exam papers in the first chance in December, will be given a second chance to clear it, between January 10 and 15 next year.

Council officials said the practical examinations for the upcoming Plus II exams are also scheduled to be held from January 2 to January 15 next year.