The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) will conduct online assessments for Classes III, V and VIII in September, the council’s chief executive and secretary said on Monday.
The pilot project will be held in 300 schools across the country. Of them, 50 are from Bengal.
In Calcutta, 21 schools have been shortlisted, a council official said.
“The process has been initiated, and the online assessments will happen in September. Once the results are out and the fine-tuning is done based on the pilot, the assessments will be rolled out in 2026. It has to be a good learning and joyful experience for the students and the schools. The assessments will be held once a year,” Joseph Emmanuel, chief executive and secretary, Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) told Metro over the phone.
Class III will have a 30-minute assessment, Class V will have a two-hour and 10-minute assessment (130 minutes), and Class VIII will have a three-hour assessment (180 minutes), testing proficiencies in English, math, science and environmental science.
The online assessments will be conducted in real time in all three classes of the shortlisted schools. All students of those three classes will be expected to appear for the assessments, a council official said.
The schools will be informed shortly.
The assessments will help the council to ascertain things like academic preparedness of the students, preparedness of the schools that will include infrastructure requirements and the technicalities of conducting such an assessment, said Emmanuel.
“Before rolling out, it (the pilot) will help the council to know whether there are any challenges during the assessments, which will be conducted in real time... the pattern of questions, how much time children are taking to answer the questions...,” said Emmanuel.
In February, the council sent a circular to schools to have fully functional computer labs with Internet facilities so students could access online learning platforms and participate in the council’s online activities.
Schools have applied to the council for the pilot from where they were selected.
Emmanuel had earlier said that the assessments would give an “insight into the learning aptitude and skill set of the learner” and not be an exam that threatens a child with “pass-fail”.
Schools that have applied for the pilot feel it would give them an idea about their level of academic transactions in classrooms.
“It will help us to know whether we are doing justice to the curriculum,” said Seema Sapru, principal of The Heritage School.