The ICSE council will announce the dates of the ICSE (Class X) and ISC (Class XII) semester 2 exams after the announcement of national-level exams like JEE Main and NEET-UG so there is no clash of dates.
“Once they (the National Testing Agency) publish the dates of the JEE Main and NEET, we will set our dates so there is no clash of dates, especially for math and science subjects,” Gerry Arathoon, chief executive and secretary of the Council of the Indian School Certificate Examinations told The Telegraph over the phone on Friday.
The council had earlier this month announced that the ISC and ICSE semester 2 exams would tentatively start in the last week of April.
On Friday, Arathoon conveyed to the school heads at the annual conference of the Association of Schools for the Indian School Certificate the council’s decision to finalise the dates of the semester 2 exams after the JEE Main and NEET-UG dates are announced.
“Earlier, we did not have to wait for the exam dates. But now we have to,” he told this newspaper later.
Before the pandemic, the ICSE and ISC exams were held in February and March.
For the 2022 batch, the council has introduced two semester exams. Semester 1 was held in respective schools in November and December.
Many schools in Kolkata have scheduled on-campus rehearsal tests to prepare students for the semester 2 exams.
“Schools should conduct classes on campus because there is scope for discussion and interactions that students have missed out on. They have the whole of March and April to prepare for the board exams,” Arathoon said.
“If schools have completed the syllabus, they should do revision. Semester 2 will have MCQ (multiple-choice questions), short-answer and long-answer questions. These have to be practised. We have published specimen papers and teachers should prepare questions modelled on the specimen papers and make children practise,” Arathoon said.
The council had earlier advised schools not to conduct “pre-board” exams for ICSE and ISC candidates unless the syllabus has been thoroughly completed and revised. Several schools rescheduled the exams after the advisory.
Arathoon also said practice would improve the students' handwriting, which deteriorated in the last two years as campuses were shut and classes held online because of Covid.