Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) has deferred ICSE (Class X) and ISC (Class XII) 2021 exams. The exams for class 12th has been postponed and the final decision on when to hold it will be taken after the council reviews the situation, on June 01, 2021. On the other hand, for class 10th students, CISCE has given two options to the students, which are:
- Take the class 10th exams, when the exams will be held for class 12th. OR
- Do not take the exams at all.
Candidates opting for the second option will be promoted on the basis of fair and unbiased criteria, which will be developed by the board.
Basically, to defer of CISCE board exams 2021 means that the exam has been postponed. It does not mean that the exam has been cancelled. However, Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has also given same option to the students. CBSE has clearly said that it is cancelling class 10th exams and is postponing class 12th exams. Despite this, CBSE is also giving class 10 students option to take the exams, if not satisfied with the result which will be prepared on the basis of ‘objective criteria’. CISCE is also doing the same but is nit using the term cancelled.
Now the question arises, then on the basis of what, class 10th students will be promoted to next class? Well, CBSE is preparing an objective criteria for this and CISCE has said that it will prepare a ‘fair and unbiased criteria’ for the same. Unbiased means something that is not in favour of a particular party and is fair for all. The meaning of objective criteria is also similar. In shot, both the brads will develop a criteria via which no candidate is favoured over another and all are treated equally, so that, no students is at loss.
Mostly, it is expected that these new passing criteria will be based on internal assessment, procticals (if held), and project work.
Earlier, CISCE announced that it is putting exams on hold but today, on April 16, 2021, the board has made it clear that the exams have been postponed. The announcement for postponing of CISCE board exams 2021 was made via an official notification, which is as shown below.

As per the earlier released schedule, ICSE class 10th exams were going to held from May 4 to June 7, 2021. Whereas, exam dates for ISC class 12th was April 8 till June 18, 2021. However, now that the exam have been posted it is impossible to tell what will be the new exam dates. The board will conduct the exams when COVID graph will flatten and it will be safe for the students to take the exam at centers.