CISCE cancels ICSE class 10 board exams; Class 11 to begin online 'at earliest'

New Delhi, Apr 20: 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. It can be seen that this decision was taken by the CBSE.

In an official notice, the council said, "The options (which were) given in earlier circular, now stand withdrawn.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."

Earlier, it can be seen that 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. 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.

However, CISCE is yet to declare the criterion to declare results for class 10 students. "A fair and unbiased criterion and date of result declaration will be announced the CISCE later," the notice said.

In 2020, the 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.

This move, that is adopted by the CISCE, will impact about two lakh candidates. Every year, about 2 lakh students appear for class 10 exams. In 2020, a total of 2,07,902 candidates appeared for ICSE exams. Of these 2.06 lakh had cleared the exam.