Election shadow on school exam schedule

TT, Jan. 6: At least eight papers of ISC and ICSE 2017 would need to be rescheduled because their dates coincide with the multi-phase Assembly elections in five states next month.

The revised dates would be announced later, the principal of an ICSE school in Calcutta said today.

Gerry Arathoon, chief executive and secretary of the Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), had announced in Lucknow on Thursday that ICSE and ISC papers would be rescheduled because of elections.

Metro tried to contact Arathoon to find out if the alternative dates had been fixed but he did not take calls.

The ISC schedule is from February 6 till April 5. The ICSE examinations are to start later and finish earlier - from February 27 till March 31.

More than 1.75 lakh Class X and XII students across the country will write the two examinations.

The election dates overlapping with the examination schedule are February 11, 15, 23 and 27 and March 4 and 8.

The council today sent a text to the principals of all affiliated schools, informing them about its decision to reschedule some of the examination dates.

"ISC examinees will be affected the most. At least five of their papers coincide with the elections," a principal said.

Some school principals said the Election Commission should have coordinated with the council before fixing the election dates.

"Since it would be difficult to advance the examinations, the council's only alternative is to postpone the papers that clash with the election dates. This means the schedule would stretch to mid-April, in which case ISC examinees would be inconvenienced because they have to prepare for various national competitive exams," a teacher said.

The Election Commission announced on Wednesday that Assembly elections would be held in multiple phases between February 4 and March 8. The five states where Assembly elections are to be held are Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Punjab and Manipur.

In Uttar Pradesh, which has nearly 340 ICSE and ISC schools, the poll dates are February 11, 15, 19, 23 and 27 and March 4 and 8.

Punjab and Goa will vote on February 4 and the Uttarakhand election is on February 15. The CISCE has 110 affiliated schools in Uttarakhand and 120 in Punjab, a source said.

Goa and Manipur would be affected less because these two states have fewer CISCE-affiliated institutes: six and one respectively.