Summary
CISCE has been offering these subjects but not all schools make them available to students for want of interested candidates and teachers
Several ICSE schools have introduced new subjects in Classes XI and XII, like fashion designing, mass media & communication, biotechnology and legal studies in the past couple of years.
At least three schools said they introduced some of these subjects this year. The idea is to open up more career options for students and pave the way for interdisciplinary education, they said.
The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) has been offering these subjects but not all schools make them available to students for want of
interested candidates and teachers.
Some schools took feedback from parents and students before introducing the subjects.
Modern High School for Girls introduced fashion designing in Class XI and the first batch of legal studies appeared for ISC (Class XII) in 2024.
Sri Sri Academy and South City International School have introduced mass media & communication, fashion designing and legal studies in Class XI this year.
Sri Sri Academy has also added biotechnology to the bucket.
The Heritage School has been offering mass media & communication and legal studies in Class XI since last year.
Some schools have widened the option for students to choose different subject combinations, instead of keeping it water-tight to streams.
This helps in interdisciplinary studies, in higher education, they said.
“Over the past three years, we have done away with the distinction of streams like science, commerce and arts. There are quite a few students who are experimenting with different subject combinations,” said Damayanti Mukherjee, principal, Modern High School for Girls.
A commerce student has taken up fashion designing as one of the subjects, a teacher said.
In Sri Sri Academy too, the new subjects and some of the existing ones, are being offered across streams.
“The council has given us options and we wanted to give more opportunities to our students. In Classes XI and XII, students are on the threshold of higher education and the wider choices will give them a start to liberal education,” said Gargi Banerjee, principal, Sri Sri Academy.
“Usually, schools do not do so because of logistical issues and preparing a timetable might become a hassle,” she said.
The demand for mass media & communication is high among students.
In its first year, Sri Sri Academy had 35 students who opted for mass media and communication.
In The Heritage School, too, there are over 45 mass media and communication students in Class XII this year.
“Mass media and communication is not a text-heavy subject and students enjoy the lab classes where they learn about video editing and other practical applications,” said Anil Jha, ISC coordinator at The Heritage School.
Mukherjee of Modern High said many of their students opt for CLAT (common law admission test) and the school started legal studies after taking an opinion poll.
“Earlier they had only political science, sociology and history and we felt that legal studies would give them an edge,” said Mukherjee.
Satabdi Bhattacharjee, principal of South City International School, said that the school had done a survey and then introduced these subjects.
“There is a definite demand and we want to cater to it,” said Bhattacharjee.
Last updated on 14 Apr 2024
