The Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations has dashed off letters to the human resources development (HRD) ministry and the University Grants Commission (UGC) with the plea to clear the confusion over environmental education (EVE).

Problems faced by students seeking admission in city colleges have triggered the move.

On a Calcutta University directive, the colleges are not considering EVE while calculating the applicants’ aggregate score using the best-of-five rule.

“We request you to kindly consider EVE to be on a par with other subjects,” G. Arathoon, additional secretary and officiating chief executive of the council, has written in his June 5 letter to the UGC and the HRD ministry.

It could not be confirmed, however, whether the letters have reached Delhi.

The council is highlighting the plight of the students to push its demand.

“I never knew that my EVE marks will not be taken into account while considering my application. I found EVE very interesting and I have scored 94 per cent in it. It is really sad that my marks will not count,” rued Arunima Ghosh, a student who cleared ISC from an Entally school.

As Calcutta has the maximum number of the council-affiliated schools, the council officials will also write to the vice-chancellor of Calcutta University, Asis Kumar Banerjee, to address the issue.

The council, which conducts the ICSE and ISC examinations, is the only board in the country to have introduced EVE as one of the best-of-five subjects.

Other boards, like CBSE and the state higher secondary council, have made it mandatory for students to pass in EVE, but it is not included as one of the best-of-five subjects.

“We took the decision to consider EVE as a compulsory subject from this year, in keeping with a Supreme Court directive. But our students are facing problems in getting admission into colleges. We expect the UGC’s intervention to iron out the problems,” said Arathoon.