The Council for Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) on Friday revealed a detailed statistical methodology to evaluate the cancelled ICSE and ISC examinations that will factor in the average of the best-three scores in papers for which a student has already appeared as well as internal assessments, projects and practicals.

The council also announced a reduction in syllabus by up to 25% for the 2021 ICSE and ISC examinations in view of the loss in school hours due to the Covid pandemic. The syllabus may be pared by up to 50% if reopening of schools is delayed further.

“The syllabus reduction has been done keeping in mind the linear progression across classes while ensuring that the core concepts related to the subjects are retained,” said Gerry Arathoon, CISCE chief executive and secretary.

The council has directed schools to ensure that teachers navigate the chapters strictly according to the sequence of topics laid down in the syllabus so as to facilitate further reduction, if required.

The Central Board of Secondary Education is also in the process of reducing the syllabus and has sought suggestions from various stakeholders in this regard.

To arrive at the marks for papers that were cancelled for both ICSE and ISC, the CISCE has derived a complex formula that takes into account a ratio of the best three scores in papers in which the candidate has appeared along with the ratio of the internal assessment of the particular subject for which the marks are being computed.

The formula was devised by reputable statisticians from premier institutions, the council said.

Principals of CISCE schools said the apparently complicated computation that the council had adopted was scientific and would fairly determine a student’s ability in an examination.

“Students will be judged not just on the basis of pre-boards but also on internal assessment, project work and practical work which they have already taken for the board examinations,” said the principal of a city school.

Seema Sapru, principal of The Heritage School, felt the assessment method adopted by the council was logical. “There is a mathematical calculation and the council has derived the formula which is student-friendly. I do not believe candidates will require to take the improvement examinations later because this marks imputation formula is a win-win for students,” said Sapru. In statistics, imputation is the process of replacing missing data with substituted values.

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