Days after announcing to give students an option to select whether or not they wish to appear for ICSE or class 10 exams, the Council for Indian School Certification Examination (CISCE) has decided to cancel the class 10 examinations altogether. This is in line with the decision taken by the CBSE.
“The options (which were) given in earlier circular, now stand withdrawn.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,” the council said in an official notice.
Earlier, the board had decided to allow students to choose their mode of assessment. Those who would have selected to appear for the written exam would be assessed based on it. Those who would have opted out of the written exam would have been assessed on an “objective criterion”, as per the previous order. Now, all the students will be assessed based on the “objective criterion”.
Even as the CISCE has not shared the criterion to assess students yet, it has asked schools to start teaching class 11 syllabus to these students “at the earliest”. Considering the COVID-19 situation, class 11 will begin in online mode. Schools have been asked to start the admission process for class 11, if not already started. CISCE has directed schools to prepare a schedule and begin online classes for class 11 students “at the earliest”.
Last year too CISCE had declared the result based on a “special criterion” which included three parameters – the average of a candidates’ best three subject marks in the board exam, subject project and practical work, and marks obtained for project and practical work expressed as a percentage. Since this year, none of the theory exams could take place, this criterion is expected to change for 2021 batch.
