-Mita Mukherjee

The 2021 ICSE and ISC examinations will be held in pen and paper mode and students of Class X and XII will have to attend classroom teachings for at least two months before appearing in the board exams, Gerry Arathoon, chief executive and secretary of Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations said on Friday.

“Both the school-leaving examinations will be in pen and paper and not in online mode,” Gerry Arathoon announced this at a virtual conference of Association of Schools for the ISC during the day.

Later, talking to EducationWorld he said certain technical support is required for conducting the board examinations in online mode.

“We are not ready to conduct the test online,” he told EducationWorld

Moreover, he said that there were reports that 20 to 30 per cent students used smart phones for attending the online classes. Many students are unable to attend the online lessons because of poor connectivity and network problems.

“ It is not possible to hold the board exams in online mode in such a situation,” Gerry Arathoon said.  

Since all schools were closed throughout the entire academic year, students could not attend the practical classes, he said.

Students of Class X and XII will have to be taught “rigorously” through classroom teaching at least for two months before they wrote the board exams.

“The classroom teaching is mainly required for the practical classes. Schools have taught students through the online classes. It is not possible to teach the practical lessons through the online mode. So they (students) will have to attend the schools to prepare for the practical exams,” Gerry Arathoon told EducationWorld.

The CISCE chief reiterated today that there was no possibility of conducting the ICSE and ISC in February-March. The two board exams were held at this time till this year.

 He said the council had requested the chief ministers of all state governments to allow them to partially reopen the schools for Class X and XII students.

The Assembly elections are due to April-May in some states. The Council had also written to the Chief Election Commission of India requesting it to inform the council about the tentative dates of the elections.

The council has not yet received any reply from the state governments nor from the Chief Election Commission of India.  

“The schools will have to reopen first. We can decide when the exams can be held after the state governments give the permission to the schools to start functioning,” Gerry Arathoon said.

Some states, where there is no election next year have announced the tentative dates for conducting the respective state board examinations.

“Ours is a national board. The ICSE and ISC exams are simultaneously held all over India. So we will be in a position to decide when we can hold the exam only after we know the election dates,” Gerry Arathoon added.

Also read: Board exams 2021: Here’s what students have to say