ICSE not tough, helps more in entrance exams: TM Purushothaman

Kochi: Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) better known as ICSE is stream which has very less number of schools and students in the state compared to CBSE and state streams. Altogether a total of 7269 students were presented by 149 schools for the ICSE (Class X) exam across the state this year while 56 schools presented 2,174 students for the ISC (Class XII) exam.

Seventh Day Adventist Higher Secondary School, Kochi, principal Mr T M Purushothaman says there are a lot of misconceptions prevailing in the society about the ICSE and ISC streams which is why not many students are attracted to the streams. He says that the syllabus of both ICSE and ISC is not tough and in fact helps students who prepare for entrance examinations and also for higher studies.

“Earlier in CISCE system the syllabus was prepared by the council from Class IX to Class XII only but from last year this was changed to Class I to Class XII, by introducing more interesting activities. Students have optional subjects from Class VIII itself including fashion designing, crafts, sports, computer, economics and others. Texts are made scientifically and there is a research wing which evaluates the results every year and makes modifications to curriculum based on it,” he says.

“Since the content has enough depth, students will be able to acquire in-depth knowledge in subjects by Class XII. It is only a myth that the content is tough. It is the stream where most number of students pass the final Class X and Class XII exams. Many entrances at the national level are topped by ICSE students. Even the analysis by State Commissioner of Entrance Examination on the performance of students in various boards in engineering entrance examination reveals that ICSE students perform better. However, the students except state stream were discriminated against in the engineering admission till last year,” he says.