In previous years, the day after the results of any board examination are announced, students start scouting colleges for admissions. This year, with the examination schedule disrupted and the admission season pushed back on account of the pandemic, many ICSE class X and ISC class XII students have already completed admission formalities in schools, pre-university colleges or degree colleges based on their pre-board scores.
For the most part, students and parents are relieved that the results are finally out as it will allow them to concentrate on the next academic year.
“It is finally the end of a very stressful time for parents and students. We are glad that students finally have some scores now,” said Rukmini S., parent of a class X ICSE student.
The institutions that have not completed the admissions process have decided to conduct it online, including interviews and written tests.
Fr. Abraham V.M., Vice Chancellor of Christ University, said that they have completed provisional admissions based on interviews and their entrance exam. “We are planning to start online classes and orientation programmes for undergraduate programmes from August,” he said.
Clarence High School has completed provisional admission for 60% of incoming students. “We will soon conduct online admissions for the rest. Online lectures for class XI students would begin from August 5,” said principal Jerry George Mathew.
Many pre-university colleges have already begun online classes for students who have finished their class X examinations even though students of State board and CBSE are yet to get their results. The Department of Pre-University Education had warned PU colleges against conducting admissions.
Many degree colleges find themselves in a Catch-22 situation as there is a discrepancy in how many board exam papers students have appeared in. While CBSE and ISC students have not written a few papers, pre-university students have written all their examinations.
“This is a dilemma as the admissions process has to be fair. But we just have to accept the scores that the individual boards grant in a situation like this,” said the principal of a degree college.
ICSE and ISC students, who received their results on Friday, were happy with the way their marks were calculated. The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) had cancelled many of the pending examination papers that were supposed to be held in July. The scores of the papers cancelled were calculated based on the average of the best three percentage marks obtained from among the papers the candidate has appeared for in the board examination and the internal assessment.
Mr. Mathew said that it was the best possible method in the current circumstances. “We are glad that the pre-board scores are not included as part of the assessment as different schools have different evaluation practices. In fact, some schools are very strict in pre-board evaluation. So, the system adopted is the best for students,” he said.