– Mita Mukherjee

The dates of ICSE and ISC examinations will be announced as soon as the Election Commission of India declares the schedules for conducting the elections in five states, Gerry Arathoon, secretary and chief executive of Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations said on Saturday.

He said this while addressing the annual conference of the Association of Heads of Anglo-Indian Schools in India which was conducted virtually today.

The Election Commission is expected to announce the poll dates for the ensuing Assembly elections in Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry within a week.

“ We are waiting for the Election Commission to announce the election dates. The commencement dates of the ICSE and ISC exams along with the entire schedule will be announced immediately after the Election Commission declares the poll dates. We are hopeful that we will be in a position to announce the exam schedules within two weeks,” Gerry Arathoon told EducationWorld after the conference.

He said the ISC Class XII practical examinations will have to be scheduled between April 1 and May 31 and the practical questions will have to be set by visiting examiners in consultation with the principals of the individual schools. The council will send sample questions and guidelines to the schools on the basis of which the practical questions will have to be set. The dates for conducting the practical examinations will also have to be fixed by the individual schools in consultation with the visiting examiners this time.

In the previous years the question papers for conducting the ISC Class XII practical examinations were set by the CISCE and the dates of practical examinations were also fixed by the council.

“ We have decided to change the method of conducting the ISC 2021 practical examinations in view of the Covid-19 pandemic. Unlike the previous years the schools can’t ask all the students to attend the campuses on the same day this time. The council has brought about the change so that the practical exams can be conducted according to the convenience of the schools and the visiting examiners,” Gerry Arathoon said.

The schools have reopened in most states for classes IX to XII where the council has affiliated schools except Mumbai in Maharashtra where the number of Covid-19 cases are still rising.  

Arathoon today urged the heads of all schools to ensure that students who will appear in ICSE and ISC examinations this year were given sufficient time to clear their doubts and practice the practical papers before the board examinations.

“ The schools were closed since March and the Class X and XII have been taught only through the online mode. Schools should ensure that students of Class X and XII are able to clear their doubts before they appear in the written and practical examinations,” said Arathoon.

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