Students studying in ICSE and ISC schools are in for a course change next year. The board governing the two systems, the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), has decided to drop a subject from the curricula.
ICSE school principals from around the country got together in Mumbai on Wednesday to attend the 53 annual conference of the Association of Schools for the Indian School Certificate. Held in the city for the first time, close to 1,200 principals and other dignitaries attended the conference on its first day.
Common syllabus across the board being the talk of the times, CISCE announced major changes in the curricula of ICSE (class IX and X) and ISC (class XI and XII) at the conference.
"The idea of common syllabus was first discussed by the Council of Boards for School Education three years ago, and this body which brings together all boards under one roof has formulated the new syllabus," said Gerry Arathoon, the additional secretary and officiating chief executive & secretary of the CISCE. "ICSE as well as ISC will adopt almost 90-95 % of this syllabus. The rest 5-10 % will be decided by us."
One of the major changes has been the exclusion of the subject environmental studies from ICSE and ISC curricula. "Environmental studies will be excluded as a separate subject and that portion will be incorporated in the remaining six subjects," Arathoon said.
While following CBSE's instance in adopting the common curriculum, Arathoon rejected the CBSE's idea of making board exams optional for his students. "Class X board examination is what prepares students for the bigger board examination in class XII. If we make this optional students will find every other examination difficult," he said.
The changes in the curricula, Arathoon said, will be put to test in the examinations to be held in 2013. "We have only started with the science and maths syllabi and will slowly incorporate similar changes in commerce subjects too."
Along with this, Arathoon added, that the syllabus for classes I to VIII under ICSE will be revised soon. "This is done by another body, but the changes will be effective soon," said Arathoon.
The ASISC filed a case in the Supreme Court in February this year against certain clauses of the Right to Education Act like the 'no fail' policy and continuous comprehensive evaluation. A second writ petition was filed in September.
