HYDERABAD: The Central Board of Secondary Education has made life easier for children excelling in sports, and their parents. It took a major decision to relax the rules to allow students from its affiliated schools to take part in national and international meets without worrying about whether the dates clash with the annual exam.

The school principal can now inform the regional CBSE office about a student’s participation in a sporting event, and the board will allow the student to write the exams for corresponding subjects later.

Students from CBSE schools have made their mark at the junior level in national swimming, skating, chess, kabaddi, kho-kho, football, table-tennis and other competitions, according to D. Vasudha Rani, principal of Panineeya Mahavidyalaya Public School, Dilsukhnagar.

“Earlier, the institution had to get approval from the CBSE to exempt the student from writing the annual exam to take part in competitions. Parents used to get tense about permission from the board, travel and boarding arrangements etc. Now, only a filled-in proforma needs to be sent,” she said.

Mr K. Ramdas, father of a swimming champion, said, “My daughter K. Abhijitha, a tenth class student at Pallavi Model School, Alwal, has qualified for a national junior swimming championship in Rajkot. She is getting good encouragement from the school.”