NEW DELHI: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), in a public alert, has advised students to not be misled by the claim of a private publisher that CBSE has collaborated with it and released new sample papers for students of classes X and XII.

The publisher has suggested to students that they access these practice papers from private websites.A CBSE spokesperson said that the Board has not collaborated with Educart "in any way", and these extra or additional practice papers are available on the official CBSE website free of cost.The CBSE alert said: "As per NE recommendations, the Board had initiated 'competency focused education and assessment' in its affiliated schools and has recently released practice papers in all major subjects of Classes X and XII...

However, it has come to the notice of the board that schools and students are being asked to access the CBSE practice papers from certain private publisher's sites.

The public is advised not to be misled by any claims and promotions.

It is further clarified in public interest that these papers are available at the official CBSE website: https://cbseacademic.nic.in//index.html and can be downloaded free of charge."An article was widely circulated on social media, including Youtube videos with link to PDF files, that said that the new sample papers are 'Powered by Educart'.

This has created confusion on among students and teachers."These extra practice papers have been developed for Class X and XII students to facilitate them in tackling application-based questions of higher order thinking skills and enhance their conceptual understanding of topics.

These papers are available at the official website of CBSE and can be downloaded free of cost," a CBSE spokesperson said."It's an unethical practice aimed at misleading students for commercial gains," the board spokesperson added.