ISC science and mathematics courses may have been "rearranged" to match that of CBSE in a bid to stop the exodus of students, but several school teachers of Jharkhand noted that the trend of switching boards had, of late, waned to a large extent, especially in a city like Jamshedpur where schools offering the Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations syllabus are more popular.

Gerry Arathoon, chief executive and secretary of CISCE, admitted on Tuesday that many schools had been losing students over the past few years because of the perception that the CBSE course was a better bet in preparing for competitive examinations.

The reworked syllabi is being taught from the 2016-17 session. The ISC syllabi for other subjects will continue to be different from that of CBSE.

Arathoon said the perception that CBSE science students were better placed to do well in national-level competitive exams was "totally incorrect", although he had no explanation for why the council had failed to stem the exodus.

He said both boards had been following a common curriculum in physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics, as recommended by the Council of Boards of School Education. As many as 17 boards across the country, including CBSE and CISCE, have been following this organisation's recommendations since 2011.The structure of the CBSE and CISCE science courses had differed in some respects until last year. The "realignment" was done to remove those differences, Arathoon said.

He cited the chapter on light in physics as an example. The topic, which used to be taught in Class XII at the ISC level until last year, is now being taught in Class XI under both boards. "This is meant to convince our students and parents that if you look at the CBSE and ISC syllabi, you will find they are the same," Arathoon said after attending a two-day conference of the Bengal chapter of the Association of Heads of ICSE Schools at Howrah in Bengal.

In the CBSE curriculum, students need to study fewer topics in Class XII and more in Class XI than in ISC. This is supposedly done with an eye on entrance tests that follow the board examinations.

In ISC, students were required to study more topics in Class XII until the realignment, aimed to lighten the load on students in their final year in school.

The rejig has bared the council's failure to retain good students in the face of competition from CBSE as well as international boards.

While several principals in Jamshedpur felt that fewer students were moving out of the CISCE system in the past few years, they admitted that a common syllabus would help students. "Yes, CISCE has adopted a lighter syllabus in maths and science and they have also made it clear that schools can refer to NCERT books. A lighter syllabus is always good for students because it releases pressure," said Rajani Shekhar, principal of DBMS English School.

Father Ajit Xess, principal of Ranchi's St Xavier's School, Doranda, said it was all about mindset and that there was no reason to believe the ISC syllabus was in any way inferior to CBSE.

"Around 21.6 per cent ISC students cracked IIT this year, whereas the number of ISC students appearing in the entrance exam was much less (around 36,000 only). My perception is that the exodus of students to CBSE after completing tenth from ICSE is just about mindset. The syllabus of ISC was in no way inferior to CBSE, but since some of the major competitive examinations are conducted by CBSE, it is perceived that students pursuing CBSE would be at an advantage," said Xess

Dr. Moni Mathew, principal of St Thomas School, Dhurwa, agreed, adding that he found students of CISCE had better grounding.

"I strongly believe that it is a wrong perception that CBSE is more compatible to entrance examinations. We usually counsel students, but it is a kind of peer pressure that is at play here. If a proper assessment of students who finally get selected through competitive examinations is done, you will find that the foundation of those who have done ICSE is better," he explained.

Chandrima Ray, a senior teacher with St Xavier's School in Bokaro, said the impression that CBSE students were better at cracking competitive examinations like IIT, medical and UPSC was wrong.

"More students may be opting for CBSE compared to ISC, but as a percentage, ISC students were doing equally well. In language courses, ISC students are much better, while in science subjects, students of both boards are more or less the same," she said.

Principal of De Nobili School, Sijua in Dhanbad, Tanushree Banerjee agreed with some of her peers when she too said that the popular perception was that since CBSE conducted some of the competitive examinations, students pursuing CBSE would benefit. "This is a misconception," she insisted.

But it was left to Jamshedpur's Rajani Shekhar to raise the most pertinent point when she questioned how today's parents were measuring "success" of their wards. "I don't know why engineering should be a parameter of success," said the principal of DBMS school. "There are so many options in humanities, we never consider that. So, the entire system of calculating the success rate is wrong," she added.

Do you think the ISC syllabus change will help students? Tell ttkhand@abpmail.com