Gerry Arathoon, CISCE chief, and the secretary said that students studying in schools affiliated to CISCE (Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations) will be prescribed a curriculum set by the board. This is a first and will apply to students of pre-school up to class 8 starting from the academic year 2017-18.
The what and how
So far, the Board used to prescribe the syllabus only for classes 9 to 12. Arathoon said that the junior classes, i.e. pre-school to class 8, has been following the NCERT syllabus until now. The new curriculum that the Board will set will be released at the ASISC’s (Association of Schools for the Indian School Certificate) 59th annual conference that will begin on 23rd Nov in Lucknow.
This step will lead to upward mobility, reckons Arathoon. He said that now with having their own syllabus starting from as early as pre-school, the students will be able to prepare for the ISCE exams in a better way. This way, the students will have the chance to work towards the board exams from an earlier stage.
The revised syllabus for ICSE class 10 and ISC class 12, said Arathoon, will be applicable for the students who will be writing the exams in 2018. The subjects for which the ISCE 2018 syllabus has been changed are geography, history, mathematics, civics and physics.
More good news
There also some good news from the Board for people who are planning to start a school that is affiliated to CICSE. The land measurement needed to start a school has now been reduced by the Board to 2000 sq. meters said Arathoon. Earlier, the affiliation was granted only if the land area measured 4000 sq. meters for schools beyond the metropolitan cities, while within the metros, it was 2000 sq. metres.
He said that founders of new schools had a difficult time acquiring land that measured 4000 sq. metres. The new rule, however, states that before seeking affiliation, the schools must satisfy the infrastructure requirement and other facilities.