English pulled down ISC and ICSE scores, say Mumbai schools

Mumbai city news: An analysis by The Learning Point, an education website, on Friday showed that only one Mumbai school featured in the list of top 10 schools in India, based on ISC-2017 scores.

Schools in the city have asked the Council of Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) to re-evaluate the elective English papers, after a study showed a significant drop in scores.

Students collect HSC marksheet at Ruia college in Mumbai on Friday. (Pratik Chorge/HT)

The council conducts ICSE (class 10) and ISC (class 12) exams.

An analysis by The Learning Point, an education website, on Friday showed that only one Mumbai school featured in the list of top 10 schools in India, based on ISC-2017 scores.

Rishi Valley School, Chittoor, toppled The Cathedral and John Connon School, Fort, to record the best scores across India. Rishi Valley’s class average was 88.8%, while Cathedral stood at 88%.

The overall performance of schools was also much lower when compared with last year, when Cathedral ranked first in the country with an average of 93.2%, followed by Smt Sulochanadevi Singhania School, Thane at 91.1%.

Principals blamed English (elective) for the lower scores.

“We were disappointed with how students performed in this subject. It was one of the poorest ever,” said Meera Isaacs, principal of Cathedral School. She added that they were perplexed as students usually excel in the subject. “Our students have consistently scored in the 90s, but this year, the English scores dropped to 80 and lower,” she said. “It is strange because the same faculty has been teaching for the past 16 years.”

The school has complained to the CISCE. “We have informed the council, we sent the scores of all our students to be re-evaluated by the board,” said Isaacs.

Elective English is the advanced version of Core English and tests a student’s analytical skills.

Vedant Podar, one of the ISC Maharashtra toppers this year, scored 100 in commerce, economics and accountancy, but ended up five marks short of a perfect score in English. “I was expecting a better score in English because I wrote a very good paper,” said Podar, who secured 98.75%.

Chandrakanta Pathak, principal of HVB Global Academy, Marine Lines, said that English had pulled down ICSE scores too. “Many scored 100 in math and computer science, and 98 in social studies, which is usually tough,” she said. “English and Hindi pulled down scores.”