Jamshedpur, July 8: The Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) council will conduct board examinations for students of Class 5 and Class 8 starting 2018-19.
The board has claimed that the results will have no bearing on a student’s promotion to the next class, but will be conducted only to assess students’ understanding of the subjects. The exams will be held alongside the schools’ annual exams.
The decision has evoked mixed response from the city with some principals welcoming the move will others protesting.
The board exams will only be conducted for four subjects – English, mathematics, science and social studies.
The exam papers will be evaluated by teachers of different schools, as it happens in Class 10 or Class 12 board examinations.
The question paper will be prepared by the board.
Moreover, through these examinations, school teachers will also be evaluated. If a student has fared poorly in a particular subject, then the teacher concerned will be given lower marks as well, Arathoon said. “The assessment tests in Class 5 will be conducted to check what the students have learned since preschool, and the same tests in Class 8 will be conducted to check what they have learned from Class 6 onwards,” Arathoon said.
The ICSE council has clarified that the test it has proposed for students of classes V and VIII will not be board exams and they will not add to the stress the young learners are already subjected to.
“The assessment is envisaged to be a non-threatening diagnostic assessment unrelated to classroom academic scores, hence, no prior preparation on the part of the students is required. It is not a board examination,” noted a school principal.
“The assessment would be student oriented and will be designed to assess the student’s understanding of concepts based on the newly introduced curriculum.
It will put in place strong learning foundations so that both the ICSE and the ISC examinations become less demanding and more stress-free for students.”Noted an official.
The heads of several schools in the city, however, questioned the council’s contention that the proposed tests would be different from a board exam.”If the council conducts a compulsory exam, then it has to be a board exam,” said the principal of a private school, who is opposed to the council’s plan to hold tests for the students of classes V and VIII.
The council in its note has said it has “received certain queries regarding the curriculum and its assessment from some of the affiliated schools.” The questions have been “summarised” and the board has provided an answer to each of them.