On the 19th of April, the Council for Indian School Certification Examination (CISCE) announced to cancel Indian School Certificate Examination (ICSE) and postponed the ISC Indian School Certificate (ISC) examinations. The decision regarding the ICSE and ISC examinations 2021 was taken in the wake of the worsening situation of the Novel Coronavirus or COVID-19 in India.
The announcement came days after the CISCE gave students an option to select whether or not to appear for the ICSE exams. However, considering the ongoing Novel Coronavirus or COVID-19 situation in India, the Board decided to promote all class X students on the basis of their internal assessment marks.
The CISCE said, “The options (which were) given in earlier circular, now stand withdrawn. The safety and wellbeing of our students and teaching faculty is our topmost priority and of paramount interest.”
Even as the CISCE has not shared the criteria to assess students yet, the Board asked schools to start teaching class XI syllabus to these students. Class for standard XI would be held in online mode as it would be dangerous to begin offline classes. Speaking about the results for class X, the CISCE said, “A fair and unbiased criterion and date of result declaration will be announced the CISCE later.”
Many schools have been asked to start the admission process for class 11, if not already started.
While the decision for class X board exams has been taken, the CISCE is yet to announce a decision on Class XII examinations. However, it is clear that class XII examination would be held once the situation gets better.
As of now, the class XII exams stand postponed and revised dates would be announced after considering the COVID-19 situation.
Close to two lakh candidates were eligible to appear for ICSE examination in 2021. In 2020, a total of 2,07,902 candidates appeared for ICSE exams. Of these 2.06 lakh had cleared the exam. In 2020 too, the class 10 exams were affected due to the COVID-19.
Recently, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and many state boards including the Telangana State Board of Secondary Education announced to cancel class X examination and promote students based on their internal assessments.
Besides this, recently on the 18th of April, the National Testing Agency (NTA) also postponed the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main. The revised dates for the JEE Main 2021 April session will be announced later on and at least 15 days prior to the examination.
In addition, states like Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Gujrat, Andhra Pradesh, postponed examinations for class X and XII awaiting COVID-19 situation to get better.
Meanwhile, in India, nearly 2.70 lakhs cases of COVID-19 are being recorded on a regular basis, taking the active cases tally to 16 lakhs.
