ISC will follow CBSE syllabus in science stream

In a bid to prevent students from shifting to the CBSE board and prepare them for competitive exams, the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations ( CISCE) has decided to adopt the CBSE syllabus pattern for the Indian School Certificate ( ISC) examination.

As a result, the syllabus of both boards in the subjects of mathematics, biology, chemistry and physics will now be the same as they have realigned ISC syllabus with competitive exams. This will come into effect from the 2018 ISC examination as the council will adopt the new syllabus from 2017 in 11th standard.

“We have decided we will take up the issue of preparation of our students for competitive exams. We are in the process of finalising things and we will come out with study material, video lectures, and specimen question papers to crack competitive exams. We will align our syllabus with the CBSE syllabus patterns,” said chief executive officer and secretary of CISCE, Gerry Arathoon.

He said that the council has noticed that many students go to coaching centres to prepare for various competitive exams like the Joint Entrance Examination ( JEE), which affects their classes and results.

“Unfortunately, there is a perception and a mindset among parents and students that the CBSE board is their answer for competitive exams because they are the ones who conduct many such exams. But it is not true that both syllabuses are different. The best of our students from elite schools shift to CBSE board because of this reason,” Mr Arathoon said. According to him, there is a change in syllabus in pre- primary to Class 8. The council is also planning to write to the human resource development ministry requesting it to only allow a neutral body and not the CBSE board to conduct competitive exams. Among the 36,690 ISC students from the science stream, about 25,700 had appeared for the IIT JEE mains exam and out of them, 21.6 per cent qualified.