ICSE, ISC pass marks to be lowered from 2018

Somdatta Basu | TNN | Jan 10, 2018, KOLKATA: Pass marks in the class-X ICSE and class-XII ISC examinations will be reduced from this year itself, instead of from 2019. Also, the evaluation of practical exams will have to be done on the day of the exam and at the school instead of at centralised evaluation centres.

These two decisions form a part of a slew of changes that the Council for Indian School Certificate Examination is eff-ecting from this year. More than 1.7 lakh students write the class-X exams and more than 70,000 students appear for the class-XII across the country.

"Pass marks have been reduced from 35 to 33 for ICSE students and from 40 to 35 for ISC students and this is going to be effected from this year itself, instead of from 2019 as initially planned," CISCE secretary and chief executive Gerry Arathoon told TOI on Wednesday.

"The council wanted students to benefit from the decision this year itself and must have brought its implementation forward by a year after confirming that it would be able to change all systems," Rammohan Mission School principal Sujoy Biswas said.

The decision to get the evaluation of class-XII practical papers of subjects like physics, chemistry, biology and others done by visiting examiner/s on the day of the exam and at the exam centre itself marks another significant departure from the current practice. "The numbers will be fed directly to the central server, which will help the council declare results sooner, feel school principals.

The CISCE has also decided to implement several ministry of human resource development directives that have gone out to all school boards. The letter, from MHRD secretary Anil Swarup, among other things, asked all boards to standardise the practice of awarding moderation and grace marks.

The practice of awarding "moderation marks" must be done away with except when there is an ambiguity in a question. "Vagaries in the evaluation process, bunching of marks and spiking of marks must be completely avoided," the letter stated.

The practice of awarding grace marks can continue, but only for borderline cases, and the policy should be disclosed on the website of respective boards.

Boards have also been told to show the performance of students in extra-curricular activities separately on mark sheets.