KOLKATA: The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (
CISCE) late on Friday alerted affiliated schools that the Council's initiative to conduct
Class IX and Class XI annual examination in November 2018 and February 2019 is being postponed.
The notice sent by Gerry Arathoon, the council's chief executive and secretary, indicated this is being postponed only for the 2018-19 academic year. The notice provided a 2019-20 timeframe for the examinations to be conducted.
The principals were told, "The tentative dates for the conduct of the Class IX and Class XI annual school examinations are November 4-25, 2019 and February 10 to March 4, 2020. You are requested to plan your academic calendar 2019-20 taking cognizance of the dates mentioned."
The reason for this abrupt change in plans even after announcing the examination timelines appears to be lack of adequate
infrastructure. The letter to the principals says, "the Council had envisaged to have the Question Papers in select subjects of Classes IX and XI annual school examinations made available online to all schools. The same was then to be downloaded, printed and used by the students in the Council affiliated schools in India and abroad."
It added, "For the exercise to be completely confidential, the Council has to put into place various security measures and ensure a secure environment for all data relating to the Question Papers in encrypted form. However, presently the software and technology for the same is still under development. Once ready, the same will also need to be tested thoroughly to our satisfaction before implementation and actual use by the schools."
The notice asked schools to prepare their own Question Papers for their annual school examinations this academic year, as per the format of the Specimen Question Papers are available on the Council's website.
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