ICSE, ISC students to take board exams twice this academic year

MUMBAI: A month after the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) introduced two board exams—one in each semester—for class 10 and 12 students for the 2021-22 academic year, the Council of Indian School Certificate Education (CISCE) has decided to take a similar route.
The CISCE, on August 6, issued a circular of its modified assessment plan for ICSE (class 10) and ISC (class 12) students.
Semester one exams will be held online in November and will be based on multiple choice questions (MCQs). The question papers to be set by the board will cover 50% of the reduced syllabus, CISCE chief executive and secretary Gerry Arathoon stated in the circular. Schools are awaiting details about the exams, including whether it will be a proctored one.
Semester two exams could be online or offline in March-April, depending on the Covid-19 situation in the country, and could be subjective or objective. This exam will cover topics from the remaining 50% syllabus.
In Maharashtra, CISCE has more than 230 class 10 and 50-odd class 12 schools.
“MCQs can be more challenging and far more difficult to score than subjective papers,” said Bombay Scottish principal Sunita George. Schools are awaiting sample papers to understand the difficulty level of questions and will be conducting internal tests based on MCQs before students take the first semester boards.
The markings for the two boards exams will be maximum theory marks allotted to class 10 (80/100) and class 12 (70/80). The weightage of marks for computation of final board results will be brought down to half.
The markings for internal assessment (class 10) and practicals/project work (class12) will remain unchanged. “The two board examinations will allow students across schools to compete in a pandemic year,” said a school principal.
This year, the CISCE will also not conduct class IX and XI exams. The exams for these students were last held by the board in 2019-20. Prior to that exams were held by schools.
The Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education affiliated schools said that the state too should come up with an assessment plan for SSC and HSC students this academic year.
“Schools have begun conducting unit tests. Except for the 25% reduction in syllabus, there is no clarity on how students will be evaluated this year,” said a state board school principal.