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Indian Certificate for Secondary Education or ICSE, as it is popularly known as is a private, non-governmental board of school education in India. Established way back in 1958, it was formed by the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate, with the assistance of the Inter-State Board for Anglo-Indian education. Though considered as the second most prominent board of education in our country, most of the people don’t even know that it is not still a board. ICSE is the certificate offered at the completion of the course. Yet ICSE board is the term used to mention this course. The council is mainly responsible for conduction of an all India exam for class X, which is popularly known as ICSE.  Another exam conducted by the council is known as ISC or the Indian School Certificate.

The ICSE board follows a comprehensive syllabus which has an interactive approach towards education. The board syllabi cover all the fields in various subjects with equal importance. Although most of our competitive exams are formed keeping the CBSE board syllabi in mind but the students of ICSE have an edge when they apply for foreign universities or attempt exams like TOEFL. ICSE students have a better chance of selection and growth in streams of management and humanities due to the emphasis on language and practical in the ICSE curriculum.  The curriculum is extremely engaging and challenging for the students and is successful in retaining the students’ interest levels.

The ICSE board follows their own set of rules and regulations regarding the syllabus and scheme of examinations. Recently, the ICSE even introduced reforms in its examination system, which included e-registration and centralized marking of scripts at both ICSE and ISC levels. The board has also decided to make its evaluation more transparent and clear, so that the students get a clear understanding of their evaluation system. The Council of ICSE has even declared that they would be centralizing the marking of their answer scripts for ICSE and ISC examinations. Further, rules and regulations of the ICSE have been described as follows:

• The board mainly conducts three examinations- the ICSE, the ISC and the certificate of Vocational Education Examinations.
• The board has a Committee on Examinations and Subject Committees for formulating and revising the curriculum and the syllabus of the ICSE board. They are also the ones who handle the criticisms and suggestions given for the website. The members of the team are well-trained examiners and specialists.
• The board has very strict rules regarding the attendance of the students. Candidates with less than 75% attendance are not allowed to sit for the examination.  This is inclusive of absence due to illness and other special circumstances.
• The schools affiliated under the ICSE board are provided with their own booklet which contains the regulations and syllabi of the Board.
• If a student is found not following the rules and regulations of the board regarding the examinations, then the candidate or the candidates concerned may be disqualified.
• Under ICSE, a strong emphasis is laid on vital and practical tests and assignments. The schools are bound to have labs for subjects such as math, science, computers etc.  The marks of these tests are aggregated with the overall scores of the student. ICSE also lays strong emphasis on Lab work in subjects such as science and math.
• The ICSE board has made it compulsory for all the schools following ICSE pattern to include environmental education as one of the subjects. The teaching of this subject helps to raise the mental bar of the students and make them more aware of their environment.
• The ICSE examination question paper is a balance of objective and subjective questions. Both have to have equal priority or weight. There are projects of almost all the subjects which help the students to get a deeper understanding of the subject.
• Since 2005, ICSE has provided students with the option of choosing one subject from a group of skill-based subjects for the final term exams. They can choose from a variety of subjects such as art, dance, physical education, cookery etc. While the examinations, 50% of the assessment is made by an outside examiner.

ICSE syllabus and curriculum lays a very strengthening base for the students. It provides the students with a better insight of the topic and helps them learn better through practical and lab work. This helps in developing a firm base for the students. The ICSE board of education is particularly preferable for students who wish to pursue higher education abroad. It is well accepted and acknowledged by well-known universities and colleges worldwide. The ICSE exams are knowledge, understanding and application based. These exams help the students to develop a better understanding of their subjects. ICSE curriculum is better to opt for because 20% of all the examination result is based on internal assessment. As the student is continuously assessed in the class room, he gets a better sense his school books. Hence, the rules and regulations of the ICSE board might make it a bit different from the CBSE board but they have their own advantages that benefit the student in the long run.

All city schools will now start their nursery admission after December 15 according to Directorate of Education. The Education Director has stipulated that the admission schedule will have to start from Dec 15 to 31. But some schools in the Capital have already announced the dates for sale of forms. As per the court orders, the schools are free to decide the dates for sale of forms, provided the DOE has no objection to it. But, no school shall start their admission procedure before December 15.

The guidelines for nursery admissions will be finalized in a week and circulars will be sent to the schools soon afterwards. While the schools are within their rights to follow their own admission schedule, they are required to intimate the DOE, in case they plan to deviate from the said set of guidelines. DOE will issue more directives about admissions in early next week. All this is done to ensure the convenience of the parents regarding the admission process, as DOE feels that the parents will benefit more, if all schools issue forms within the same timeframe.

RBI proposes for a new subject on financial management in schools.

Financial management will soon be taught in schools. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has recommended the HRD ministry to ask the school boards to commence a subject on financial management in the school curriculum which will further increase students’ understanding about the field. But the final decision is yet to be taken by the HRD ministry.

The financial management subject will cover all the aspects of finance/money as well as provide fundamental ideas on the same so that students can develop interest in the subject and pursue higher studies in future. RBI had sent the proposal to MHRD through Finance Ministry.

The HRD Ministry has also discussed about the proposal with National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) that publishes textbooks and prepares broad curriculum for school students. But NCERT did not like the idea. It said that schools already have subjects like commerce and economics that covers various aspects of financial management. There is no special need to start a new and separate subject for the students.

So let’s wait and watch for the final decision…..

Those students who wish to join the BPO sector which is developing at a very fast pace, they can now have the required training in the school itself.

This comes in the wake of the introduction of the special course related to BPO which will start in class 11^th when the session reopens. This action is being taken in Ranchi in Bihar where all CBSE schools are providing this course to the students free of cost to make them fare better in the fast-growing BPO world.

The program is called the Business Processing and Outsourcing Programme and is available for the students of the commerce stream. The main focus of this course would be on various facets of BPO which include advertising, technical up gradation, customer relation management, customer satisfaction. In addition to the theory, it is also proposed that students will be taken on sites of call centres to provide them training in practice as well. Just after completing their Plus Two examinations, the students will be able to take up this upcoming profession.

This course has been developed to give the students a career option which they can take up right after school. It has been developed by the curriculum development committee under the chairmanship of G.C. Sharma who is the director of BLB Institute of Financial Markets. Framework of the course and also the learning tools has been developed by the Central Institute of Vocational Education.

There has been seen an increase in the multi-national companies like ADP, IBM Global Services, Accenture, Convergys, etc which have developed the BPO sector. Also, there are many Indian companies too which are big names that have proven their presence in the market. These include WNS Global Service, Genpact, ICICI OneSource, etc. which provide a good opening for students in the BPO sector. These would provide a good platform for the encashment of their job skills in which they have been trained beforehand.

Startling information has been collected by the National University for Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA) through the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. This information shows that around 84% primary schools do not have a headmaster or head teachers. This makes about 949 schools out of the 1121 primary schools present in the state which are government schools or aided institutions.

Varying opinions are coming in from different administrational levels in the education department of Goa. The importance of a headmaster or head teacher is being stressed upon to maintain discipline by the former block resource person at SSA Bardez, Narendra Kamat. This however is being refuted by the project director of SSA, P R Nadkarni who says that a headmaster is not necessary for proper functioning of the school. Further, Mr. Nadkarni threw light on the fact that around 70% of primary schools never had a headmaster. The management of these schools is undertaken by higher schools which thereby cut down the need of a head teacher for management.

On this, Mr. Kamat asserted that it is the government schools which are suffering since the government does not provide any head teachers if the student enrolment is below 24 students. This causes multi-tasking in teachers and they have to take up administrative tasks in addition to their teaching. The work of a peon, administrator, teacher, manager and every other function required to be performed has to be done by the teacher itself which causes major disruption in the teaching at school.

As education experts wait in anticipation for the results of Right to Education bill, preschools may pay heed to their services and be ready for additional responsibilities. Right now there is a lot of debate on reforming the education system and to endorse the best practices.

Arguments over school admissions have received the maximum attention. It is believed that thief the bill makes it all through the process, students from class I may have to appear for entrance tests to get admission in a school.

If children from class I have to appear in the test, somebody has to prepare them for the test. That is where preschools come in handy. Therefore, additional responsibilities will have to be shared by the parents and the preschools that train and prepare children to face interviews and tests.

The Central government is very keen on raising the knowledge about the nation’s glorious past among the children and youth. This realisation has come about as the nation’s history is looked upon as textbook subject by a majority of children. In fact, the recent trend indicates a shift of interest levels towards the history of the West, i.e. USA, even when the youth is totally ignorant of their own vast and glorious history. Such sentiments were expressed during the celebrations of the Bahadur Shah Zafar Birth Anniversary that was convened by the Centre for Freedom Struggle Studies, IGNOU.

There were three main points that were stressed upon. These included exhuming the mortal remains of the Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar, construction of a national monument in Delhi in honour of martyrs who had died fighting the British and updating the history books that tend to create an impression that Bahadur Shah Zafar had surrendered to the British. The forum felt that the correction of misplaced facts would also help to strengthen the Hindu-Muslim harmony.

The Human Resource Development, HRD ministry has approved nearly 646 new teaching posts in different departments of Delhi University and its affiliated colleges. This sanction will come in handy to meet the requirements for execution of the OBC reservation quotas. Continuing in this pattern, UGCs will also receive a huge financial grant for making sure that students applying under the OBC quota aren’t denied admissions besides the provision for recurring grants.

In fact, the first monetary instalment has already been discharged. In additions to this, the Delhi Government would provide additional funding to 12 DU colleges that function under its direct jurisdiction. These financial aids were necessary as the Supreme Court had ordered the merging of OBC seats in the General category and this needed the immediate expansion of the University’s infrastructure.