The Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) is an academic qualification awarded by the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations, a private, non-governmental board of education in India. The CISCE conducts these examinations to assess students' performance in a course of general education, offered through the medium of English, and aligned with the recommendations of the New Education Policy 2020. The board facilitates these examinations for affiliated schools across various states and union territories, ensuring standardized evaluation and representation.

Overview

Introduction

The ICSE is known for its comprehensive syllabus and primary focus on the English language and variety of subjects that it offers, which involve language, arts, commerce and science. The ICSE is taught in English only.

The ICSE Examination is a school examination and the standard of the examination pre-supposes a school course of ten years duration (Classes I-X).

The Indian Certificate of Secondary Education Examination will ensure a general education and all candidates are required to enter for six or more subjects and Socially Useful Productive Work (SUPW).

Private candidates are not permitted to appear for the examination. There are three groups of subjects.this school is for elites.

Group I (compulsory)

  • English
  • Second Language (Any 1)
  • Hindi
  • ; Indian regional languages
  • Ao-naga
  • Assamese
  • Bengali
  • Dzongkha
  • Garo
  • Gujarati
  • Kannada
  • Khasi
  • Lepcha
  • Mizo
  • Malayalam
  • Marathi
  • Nepali
  • Odia
  • Punjabi
  • Sanskrit
  • Tamil
  • Tangkhul
  • Telugu
  • Urdu
  • ; Modern foreign languages
  • Arabic
  • Chinese
  • French
  • German
  • Russian
  • Modern Armenian
  • Portuguese
  • Spanish
  • Thai
  • Tibetan
  • Geography
  • History & Civics
  • History & Civics - Thailand
  • Geography - Thailand
  • Environmental Science

Group II (Any 2)

  • Mathematics
  • Science (Includes Physics, Chemistry and Biology)
  • Economics
  • Commercial Studies
  • Modern foreign languages (Group II):
  • French
  • German
  • Spanish
  • Classical Language

Group III (Any 1)

Section A

  • Computer Applications
  • Economic Applications
  • Commercial Applications
  • Art
  • Performing Arts
  • Home Science
  • Cookery
  • Fashion Designing
  • Physical Education
  • Yoga
  • Technical Drawing Applications
  • Environmental Applications
  • Modern Foreign Languages (Group III):
  • French
  • German
  • Spanish
  • Mass Media & Communication
  • Hospitality Management

Section B

  • Robotics and Artificial Intelligence
  • Assistant Beauty Therapist
  • Assistant Hair Stylist
  • Basic Data Entry Operator
  • Dietetic Aide
  • Cashier
  • Early Years Physical Activity Facilitator
  • Auto Service Technician

While ICSE offers each of these subjects to students, the school affiliated to CISCE may or may not be offering all the subjects listed. Depending on the school's resources, only a few subjects may be available to students.

In addition to the subjects listed above ICSE mandates an extra-curricular development to be displayed by students. This is achieved through a scheme called Socially Useful Productive Work & Community Service, commonly referred to as SUPW, introduced in 1978.

In accordance to SUPW, candidates will be required t select one main craft and one subsidiary service or one main service and one subsidiary craft per year of preparation for the examination. The craft may be aligned with their studies. For example a candidate who has selected Art may submit pottery as their craft.

ICSE added 8 vocational subjects under Section B of Group III in 2025.

Marking Scheme

Group I and Group II subjects have a separate marking scheme than that of Group III subjects, though all exams are scored out of 100.

In Group I and Group II subjects, candidates write an 80 mark paper on the day of the examination which constitutes the external examination portion of their marks. Another 20 marks constitute the internal assessment, which is awarded based on projects, practical files or oral/aural assessments.

To obtain marks out of 100, both external examination and internal assessment is added and reported as final marks.

Thus the split between external and internal assessments is 80% and 20% respectively.

In the one-month interval of the exams, only one examination is conducted per day, often leaving gaps in between each exam, giving candidates a large gap between their exams.

Each exam normally spans 2 hours, with the exception of the following exams which have a duration of 3 hours:

ICSE board claims of getting admission to foreign universities are misleading as additional tests like TOEFL or IELTS score are used for admission in foreign universities.

Some critics argue that ICSE/ISC is not suitable for Indian entrance exam as it is not oriented towards Science & problem solving, it's syllabus is more aligned towards humanities and admission into Central universities like Delhi University.

In West Bengal, Several toppers claimed to have benefitted by migrating from boards like the ICSE to CBSE for plus II.

In Kerala, close to 47% of Plus II students had migrated to the state board & CBSE from the ICSE. Similar pattern is commonly observed in other states.

See also

  • Council of Indian School Certificate Examinations (The examination board responsible for conducting the ICSE and ISC examinations)
  • Indian School Certificate (The examination conducted at the senior secondary level (Grade 12 equivalent) under the same board)
  • Central Board of Secondary Education (A central government-run board that administers nationwide examinations at the secondary and senior secondary levels)

Notes

References

  • of CISCE (homepage)