ICSE board exams to be held for Class 5 and 8 from 2018

New Delhi/Bhubaneswar: The Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) board examinations will be held for Class 5 and 8 students from 2018, board authorities have announced.

The board exams of ICSE are conducted for Class 10 students now. But the council will hold the exams for the junior levels as a periodical evaluation exercise, informed CEO Gerry Arathoon on Wednesday. The question papers for both Class 5 and 8 exams will be prepared by the board.

Teachers of another school will evaluate the answer papers of the students of one school as in the case of Class X exams but there will be no pass-fail tags, Arathoon said.

The board has also decided to introduce three compulsory subjects – Sanskrit to be taught for students from Class 5 to 8 and yoga and performing arts, both of which will be taught between classes 1 and 8.

While every ICSE affiliated school could decide the syllabi from nursery to Class 10 so far, from 2018 all affiliated schools will follow a new uniform syllabi.

The Odisha ICSE Schools secretary, Father Joseph said they are yet to receive the notification officially. "We have received a text message that we must check the ICSE website for updates. About the uniform syllabus, we were informed since November 2016 and we are already following it," he said.