The Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) on Thursday said it had not given any instruction to schools to ask students to undergo the Covid test and produce a fitness certificate if they chose to write the pending ICSE and ISC papers.

The clarification comes at a time several schools are asking parents to produce such documents.

At least one school in central Calcutta has asked the parents of ISC and ISC examinees to get their children tested for Covid-19 and produce the reports by June 25.

The school has allegedly ignored the parents’ submission that a child could as well contract the disease between June 25 and the date of the exams.

Eight ISC and six ICSE papers were pending when the council suspended the exams in March to ensure the children do not get infected by the coronavirus at the test venues. The papers are scheduled from July 1 and 2, respectively.

Another school in Calcutta has asked students to submit fitness certificates from doctors or give a self-declaration “to ensure safety of examinees”.

Such instructions have, council sources said, scared off many children who had initially opted to write the remaining papers.

The council recently announced that it would leave it to the students to decide whether they would write the remaining papers of ICSE and ISC or be assessed based on their performance in pre-board exams conducted by the schools.

Thursday’s clarification was sent to the heads of all council-affiliated institutions.

The council said it had only issued guidelines to schools about the safety measures they should take to conduct the remaining examinations and asked the schools to “strictly adhere” to those guidelines.

“It has been brought to the notice of the CISCE that some schools have given incorrect instructions to their students who are scheduled to appear for the ICSE/ISC forthcoming Examinations in July 2020.… The CISCE has not instructed schools to ask the parents of the candidates interested in appearing in the remaining ICSE/ISC Examinations in the month of July 2020 to get their wards tested for COVID-19, nor has the CISCE asked candidates to obtain fitness certificates from doctors or submit self-declaration forms,” council secretary and chief executive Gerry Arathoon said in a notice to the schools.

The move taken by some schools to ask parents and students to get the Covid-19 tests done was “not in consonance with the safety measure and guideline issued by the CISCE”, the notice said.

“You (schools) are also called upon to strictly adhere to the guidelines and safety measures issued by CISCE from time to time and not make any alterations to the same.”