The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) issued a circular on Wednesday evening asking conveners of the ISC (Class XII) examination to advise those who conduct the tests to “understand their duties and responsibilities” and “strictly follow” the rules.
The circular came a day after the council postponed the psychology paper scheduled for Wednesday after one of the centres “reported the question paper packet” of the psychology examination “lost”.
The exam will now be held from 2pm on April 4.
“Please advise all who are involved in the conduct of the examination to understand their duties and responsibilities and strictly follow the CISCE rules for the conduct of the examination at the centre,” reads the circular.
The circular said a fresh set of question papers would be sent by April 2.
The council has told the conveners to hand over the “New Question Papers for ISC Year 2024 to the Examination Centres” only after they have “received the packet with the Old question papers from them (head of examination centres).”
On receiving the new question papers, the conveners are to inform the heads of the examination centres about the receipt, the circular says.
The head, or the deputy of the examination centre, along with their supervising examiner should collect their packet of new question papers from the school, at the earliest, the circular says.
“Schools have to be careful because this (ISC) is a public exam and not a school exam. This exam has wider repercussions and everybody — the principal (who is the head of the examination centre), the supervising examiner, have to follow all instructions and maintain privacy,” Sangeeta Bhatia, deputy secretary, CISCE, told Metro over the phone.
The council refused to reveal any details about the centre that reported the loss of question papers.
“We are going to take action against the school. The CISCE is in touch with the school to ensure that something like this does not happen again,” a council official said.
It is the second time in the course of the 2024 ISC examinations that the council has had to defer an exam.
The first was chemistry, scheduled to be held on February 26. That exam had to be rescheduled to March 21 because of what the council said were “unforeseen circumstances”.
Many students have expressed their disappointment to teachers over the extension of the examination.
“Disappointments are part of life and children have to learn to deal with it,” said Seema Sapru, principal, The Heritage School.
On Wednesday, the school sent an email to the psychology examinees asking them not to be “disheartened” because their plans had been hit.
Students have expressed their fears about a tougher paper and some have confessed a lack of motivation to keep studying.
Home science
In another circular sent to conveners on Wednesday, the CISCE permitted ISC centres to withdraw the ISC question paper for Home science from banks on March 30 because of the yearly financial closing of the banks on April 1. The exam will be held on April 1.