Calcutta: The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) will directly select ICSE and ISC examiners from 2019 onwards instead of relying on schools to nominate them, as is currently the practice.

"The council will pick the names from a list. Schools would no longer be required to nominate teachers for evaluation of answer scripts of students writing the ICSE and ISC examinations. The council expects the new system to expedite the evaluation process," said Gerry Arathoon, secretary and chief executive of the CISCE.

The trigger for the change is a shortage of examiners almost every year because many schools do not nominate an adequate number of teachers, according to the principal of an ICSE institution in Calcutta.

A shortage of examiners causes publication of results to be delayed.

The 2,100-odd affiliated schools have been asked to update their teacher lists and submit them to the council as part of the move to centralise the selection of examiners.

Many ICSE and ISC schools are known to nominate fewer examiners than required by citing pressure to maintain the academic schedule if teachers are away for more than a fortnight. There are schools that nominate one or two names at the most. Some do not spare even one teacher.

The council has been facing a shortage of examiners in physics, chemistry and English Paper-II, a source said.

The CISCE had in 2010 introduced centralised assessment to bring about parity in assessment and speed up the publication of results. Teachers are required to visit designated centres for 15 to 20 days.

Before that, teachers would take scripts home and send them back to the council after completing evaluation.