The Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) reported to the Bombay high court that it shall allow the students of class 10 and 12, to either take up the pending exams or opt-out. These two options have offered to the students due to COVID 19 pandemic. For those students who have opted out, their grades for the pending exams will be based on their performance in internal assessments or in pre-board exams.
The CISCE previously announced that the remaining exams from July. The 10th exam is scheduled from July 2 to July 12 and 12th board exams will be conducted from July 1 to July 14.
This decision was opposed by many parents. The case was heard by the division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice S S Shinde through a video conference.
This plea was put forth by advocate Arvind Raghunath Tiwari, a parent of ICSE student. The statement requested to cancel the exams and grade the students based on their performance in their internal assessments of the particular paper.
In response to the Court’s query, the Maharashtra government said that the situation of COVID 19 is of serious concern in the state. In this state is not feasible to conduct the ICSE exams as there are nearly 226 schools which consist of around 23000 student under ICSE board.
The court on Monday, in response to the plea presented, said that the CISCE has decided to offer the students with two options. Either they can take up the exam or choose to opt-out. The grading will follow as per guidelines issued by CISCE.
The Board reported to the press that, “The paramount interest of CISCE is to protect the safety, well-being and academic endeavors of students sitting for the ICSE and ISC examinations.” The board stated that it requires the information from the school by June 22. From then, the student is allowed to change choice anytime before exam.
Also, if the board is not able to conduct the exam due to some reason, then the grading will be based on the performance in the internal exams.
In addition to that, the CISCE clarified that, “For the avoidance of doubt, for those subjects where examinations have already been conducted, results in those subjects will be declared based on the student’s performance in such examinations.”
The board also welcomes the suggestions from the students. Further hearing is scheduled on Wednesday.