ICSE Exam 2020: The Council for Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) on Monday informed the Bombay high court that it has decided not to force ICSE – Class X and ISC – Class XII students to appear for the examination in remaining papers. It has decided to allow students to opt-out of the ICSE (Class 10) board exam, for the remaining papers, which is scheduled to be held from July 2 to July 12.
The hearing on this matter will be held on June 17.
However, the results of other subjects will be declared on the basis of the student’s performance in the examination held so far.
If the decision of the CISCE is approved by the Bombay High Court students and parents will be asked to communicate their choice of option on or before June 22. They have to write to the Principal of their schools regarding their choice of option.
CISCE is scheduled to conduct the pending board examinations from 1 to 14 July. Exams for some of the subjects could not be held due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The paramount interest of CISCE is to protect the safety, well-being and academic endeavors of students sitting for the ICSE and ISC examinations,” the board added.
The Board said this decision will be communicated to all 2,605 schools affiliated to it and the option of each and every student will be ascertained. The schools will inform the option chosen by all their students to the Board by June 22.
The statements came in response to public interest litigation (PIL) filed by advocate Arvind Tiwari, whose son is appearing for ICSE examination, seeking a direction to the Board to cancel the examination of remaining papers and declare results on the basis of gradation, past performance and the performance in the papers for which examination has already been held.
The PIL said the board declared its examination schedule in December 2019 and the examination started as scheduled on February 27. All the papers till March 18 were held according to the declared timetable. However, late on March 18, the board rescheduled the remaining examination due to restrictions imposed in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.
On May 22, the board declared that examination of remaining papers of Class 10 will be held between July 2 and July 12, and examination of remaining papers of Class 12 will be held from July 1 to July 14.
Earlier, CISCE was keen on holding examinations for the remaining papers. In its reply to the PIL, it had pointed out that on June 7, it held a video conferencing meeting with principals of affiliated schools in Maharashtra which was attended by principals of 196 of the total 226 schools in the state, and that 84 of them were in favor of holding examination of remaining papers.
Advocacy Tiwari said the bench has now sought to know if the Maharashtra government was willing to grant permission to CISCE for conducting ICSE and ISC examination in remaining papers, and posted the petition for further hearing on Wednesday.
