The ICSE and ISC council decided to hold the semester exams offline based on the requests of several schools, parents and students. Shutterstock
The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) has deferred the Semester 1 online board examinations for Indian School Certificate (ISC) and Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) 2021-2022.
The exams will be now be held offline and in multiple-choice questions format, according to a new timetable released last week.
The ISC Semester-1 exams for Class XII students will begin from November 22 and end on December 20. ICSE Semester-1 for Class X students will begin from November 29 and end on December 16.
The Class X exams will begin with English Paper 1 (Language) and end with Environmental Science (Group-II elective). Most papers will be for 1 hour. Some papers, such as Hindi, Mathematics, Group-III elective, and second language/modern foreign languages, will have one-and-a-half hours.
The Class XII exams will begin with English Paper 2 (Literature) and end with Accounts. The duration of all papers will be one hour and 30 minutes.
The board decided to conduct the exams online after receiving emails from various schools, students and parents citing genuine difficulties. Most of the requests for offline exams concerned problems such as unavailability of devices, poor network and internet access and irregular power supply.
The offline examinations will be conducted at the respective schools maintaining all COVID-19 safety protocols.
Students must reach the examination hall as early as possible to avoid crowding at the entrance. They must maintain distance and wear face masks all the time. Stationery, water bottles and food cannot be shared. Students must not crowd in washrooms, libraries, corridors, playgrounds.