The Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) has devised a new syllabus for classes 10 (ICSE) and 12 (ISC) levels after considering the academic difficulties that the students have faced owing to the closure of regular class teaching due to the lockdown. It has reduced the syllabus for the 2021-22 session and will also adopt a different method of conducting the examinations. The academic session is going to be bifurcated into two semesters with a 50% syllabus covering each semester. Students can find the new syllabus on the official site cisce.org.
The examination for the first semester will be conducted in November 2021. It will be conducted online and will be an MCQ-based examination. Likewise, the second semester examination is scheduled to be held in March/April 2022. However, the mode of the examination will either be online or offline, depending on the pandemic situation. Note that both the semester examinations will be based on the specified portion of the reduced syllabus.
ICSE examination for each semester will be 80/100 marks while that for ISC will be 70/80 marks. This marks segregation is based on the maximum marks allocated for the theory subjects. However, while computing the Board results, the weightage of marks will be brought to half. Note that the students will also be assessed based on the practical or project work at the ISC level, the weightage for which remains unchanged. Similarly, the ICSE students will further be assessed via the Internal Assessment, in addition to the semester exams. The marks weightage for the same also remains unaltered.
In case the situation permits, then the ISC practicals will be held by visiting examiners who will set the question papers. Nonetheless, if the situation remains unchanged, then the practical examinations have to be conducted via the respective schools in the online/virtual mode. Based on the reduced ICSE and ISC syllabi, the schools must ensure that the practical/project work or the internal assessments are completed in due time. Abiding by the existing practice, these grades will also be evaluated and marked by the ISC’s visiting examiners and ICSE’s internal examiners. The schools must also maintain a track record of these examinations in case the Council asks for sample work. CISCE will also specify a date by which the schools must upload the marks for the same on the CAREERS portal.
The syllabus for classes 9 and 11 remains unchanged. The schools have to follow the existing regulations and syllabi for 2023. The Council will not conduct the examinations for these two classes for the 2021-22 session.
