ICSE, ISC dates rescheduled due to assembly polls

KOLKATA: Under the circumstance of assembly elections falling at a time when Board examinations are held, the Council for Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) has been forced to reschedule its Class 10 and 12 examinations. The revised time-table has already started to give jitters to the examinees as the schedule for both ICSE and ISC is now spread over more than 40 days.

"As a result of rescheduling of the examinations, the candidates will now have the benefit of added study time. The schedule for entrance examinations for admission to professional courses has been taken cognizance of, for the candidates taking the ISC examinations," said Chief Executive and Secretary, Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations Gerry Arathoon.

As per the new schedule, ICSE 2017 will now begin from March 10, Friday with English Paper I and continue till April 21, Friday with Environmental Science (Group II Elective). ISC will begin from March 1, Wednesday with Physics Paper I and end on April 26. Wednesday with Sociology paper. The practical examinations will, however, commence from January 30, Monday with Chemistry Paper II.

As per the old schedule, ICSE exam was scheduled to start from February 27, Monday and ISC was to begin from February 17 with Economics.

"The last time table was absolutely suitable since it ended ISC within first week of April. To reschedule the examinations due to the sudden announcement of election process is extremely difficult. Because the votes will be held spanning over a month on different dates that is why the new time table has become so lengthy. Now students will have to keep their concentration and motivation focused over a long time," said Sujoy Biswas, principal of Rammohan Mission School.

The concern was evident in the voice of T.H.Ireland, principal of St James School. He added, "The examination will be extremely tiring for students this time. The examinees will lose interest in the examinations. The long gap between two exams breaks the momentum. The way they were mentally getting ready or the routine they must have prepared must have gone for a toss. But, the council didn't have any alternative but chose the best possible dates."

Seema Sapru,, principal of The Heritage School too feels the examinations will be a lengthy process. "The students will have to stay focused. But this is the best possible time-table which the Council could have made," said Sapru.

Arka Banerjee, a Class XII student of Humanities in Rammohan Mission School feels t will give students additional time to prepare before every examination. "Every cloud has a silver lining. We should accept the situation and prepare ourselves for the best," Arka said.

The science students however are more worried. "We have series of national joint entrance examinations as well as the state ones. Some will begin from April itself. How can we simultaneously prepare for both?," said Amrita Ghosh, an engineering aspirant.

In the previous schedule, some of the major examinations in both ISC and ICSE were listed for the same day with the various phases of polls