A majority of students in Dhanbad have opted to appear in the CISCE school examinations for class 10 and 12 in hope of fetching better grades.

Students from across the country were given a choice by the Council for Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE), to either appear for their pending exams from July 2, or to base their marks for the remaining papers on their pre-board exams.

All CISCE schools of Dhanbad, including all eight De Nobili Schools and two Carmel schools, are asking parents of examinees to convey their choice.

A majority of schools have distributed forms for the same.

Talking to The Telegraph Online, Carmel School, Dhanbad principal Sr Sandra said “Almost 99% of the 176 ICSE examinees of our schools have opted to appear in the exams, along with all 12 ISC students.”

“A majority of students do not take the pre-board examinations seriously. They prepare for the final exams only after the pre-board exams. So students are expecting to fetch better marks by appearing in the examination, rather than being evaluated on the basis of their pre-board exams during which they were ill-prepared or less prepared,” she said, when asked why most students are choosing the first option.

She said that many schools, including Carmel, carry out pre-board evaluation without being liberal, so that students can prepare well enough to get better marks in the final board exams.

“And so, the students who had prepared for the finals have chosen the option of appearing in the exams with the prospect of getting higher marks,” she said.

The four papers remaining ICSE papers include English, Hindi, Biology and Economics/Computer, while only Biology is pending for the ISC exam.

“We have to upload the forms submitted by students regarding their choice for exams so that the exams can be held on the scheduled dates in July” said a senior teacher of Carmel School, Digwadih, the oldest CISCE affiliated school in the district.

Principal of De Nobili School, Koradih, Tanushree Banerjee, said “We have taken a statement from the parents of students in writing, regarding the options their wards want. Out of 127 students only four students have opted to not appear in ICSE exams while other 123 will appear in the exams.”