The ICSE council has cancelled the Class X board exams, the chief executive and secretary of the council said in a circular issued late on Monday.

As for the ISC (Class XII) exams, the council's earlier decision stands and the test will be conducted at a later date following a review of the situation in the first week of June.

“The ICSE (Class X) 2021 Examination: Given the present worsening situation of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country, the CISCE has decided to cancel the ICSE (Class X) 2021 Examination. The options given in the earlier circular dated 16th April 2021 now stands withdrawn. The safety and wellbeing of our students and teaching faculty is our topmost priority and of paramount interest,” said the circular signed by Gerry Arathoon, the chief executive and secretary of the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations.

The council had last week deferred ICSE and ISC exams, which were scheduled to start on May 4. It had also said the Class X students could write or skip the exams.

Arathoon said on Monday: “The CISCE is committed to devising 'a fair and unbiased criterion' as stated earlier. The criterion on which basis the results will be declared for the ICSE (Class X) students and the date of the result declaration will be announced by the CISCE later.”

Many schools were also concerned about the consequent delay in starting Class XI classes if the Class X exams were not over anytime soon.

On Monday, the council said schools should start Class XI admissions if they had already not started the process.

“All CISCE-affiliated schools (having the ISC section) are hereby advised to begin the admission process for Class XI, if not already started,” the circular said.