ICSE council gets new chief

The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) has appointed Joseph Emmanuel as its new chief executive and secretary.

He will take charge from May 1.

The office has been vacant since September 2023, when incumbent Gerry Arathoon retired after serving in the position for close to 11 years.

Council chairman G. Immanuel told heads of affiliated schools in a circular on Wednesday: "This is to inform you that Dr Joseph Emmanuel has been appointed the Chief Executive and Secretary of the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) with effect from May 01, 2024."

Emmanuel has been serving as director (academics) in the CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education).

The council has been accused by some of trying to emulate the CBSE. Some schools had complained that its focus had shifted to enabling students to fare better in entrance examinations than providing a well-rounded academic background as the council had initially envisaged.

The council had issued an advertisement for applicants after Arathoon's retirement.

In the interim, Sangeeta Bhatia, deputy secretary, CISCE, was overlooking its affairs and all communication to school principals regarding examinations or changes in syllabus came from her.

While he was still the chief executive, Arathoon announced the introduction of critical thinking and application-based questions in ICSE (Class X) and ISC (Class XII).

Both the ICSE and the ISC examinations in 2024 had a share of critical thinking questions and, according to the council, the share of such questions will progressively increase in subsequent years.

Teachers across schools said the application-based questions in the recently concluded board examinations encouraged students to think and analyse instead of "reproducing" the text.