The ICSE and ISC board exams are not likely to take place “before the end of May or in June”, ICSE council chief executive and secretary Gerry Arathoon said on Thursday evening.

Arathoon told The Telegraph over the phone that there was no clarity on when the schools can reopen, even for Classes X and XII.

He said the students were unable to attend practical classes, crucial for the board exams.

“The schools and the board would like students to come to school for the practical classes and exams. Right now, the practicals that they are doing or what they are learning is through videos. But there is no hands-on training. There should at least be two months of practicals that they do and then exams can take place,” Arathoon said.

He also referred to the upcoming elections in some states and the pandemic.

Arathoon said: “Taking all these into consideration — the hands-on practical classes, election in some states next year and the fact that the pandemic is still on, I can’t see the board exams taking place before the end of May or in June.”

Arathoon said that for the board exams to take place, parents’ consent to sending their children to school was necessary. “To have the board exams, parents have to agree to send their children to school.”

He said the state governments too needed to take a decision on the reopening of schools, and being a “national board” the council had to take all the states into account.

Usually, the ICSE and ISC exams begin in February and the exam timetable is published by the council by the end of November. The practical exams for the ISC take place as early as the first week of February.

The Telegraph had reported on November 13 how teachers across schools in Calcutta were concerned about the loss of practical classes because of the pandemic, especially for the Class XII students who are to appear in board exams next year.

Usually, for each of the science subjects — physics, chemistry and biology — Class XII students attend approximately 45 to 50 hours of practical classes in an academic year.

This year there have been none so far.

The heads of several ISC and ICSE schools had expressed concern about the loss of practical classes to the council.

The council had asked the schools for feedback on teaching, coverage of the reduced syllabus, and the conduct of Classes X and XII assessments.

The heads of several ICSE schools this newspaper spoke to said that because of the pandemic, the students were unable to perform experiments in school. Although the teachers were sending them videos of the assignments or showing live demonstrations online, it was not the same as doing hands-on experiments, they said.

This year, the Class X and XII board exams had to be stalled midway because of the pandemic. Eight ISC papers and six ICSE papers were pending when the council suspended the exams in March.

Later, the Supreme Court announced that the remaining Class X and XII exams for both the CBSE and the ICSE/ISC boards that had been rescheduled for July would be cancelled.