The Indian Certificate of Secondary Education was first incepted by the Local Examinations Syndicate of the University of Cambridge. The syllabus that the ICSE schools follow differs immensely from that followed in CBSE schools, especially in terms of content and volume. The board also conducts an ICSE examination at the end of tenth grade and an Indian School Certificate (ISC) examination towards the end of twelfth grade.
Pros:
- The syllabus that the ICSE board follows is very comprehensive and complete, covering all fields with equal importance.
- Students who want to pursue careers in fields of management and humanities will find the curriculum followed under ICSE to be more interesting and challenging, not to mention fruitful.
- The certification done as per the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education board is highly recognized all around the world, specifically by foreign schools and universities in comparison to the central board’s local margin.
- Since the emphasis is laid on English in ICSE, students from this board do have a slight edge over other students in exams like TOEFL.
- ICSE students by default happen to perform well in scholarship examinations that are based on English as the syllabus and are more attuned to the world education standards. Also, students can take up careers in English literature or language through this board.
- ICSE gives great importance to internal assessments for a child’s development. So, even the practical test results are aggregated with the overall scores.
- Students also have immense flexibility in terms of selecting specific subjects.
Cons:
- Students may land up feeling that the syllabus is too extensive for their liking as an average student in an ICSE board will have to give thirteen subjects/examinations during the sixth grade, as compared to the six subjects that the student have in CBSE.
- In spite of the fact that ICSE syllabus facilitates deeper understanding and better life skills and analytical skills, when it comes to pursuing further education, it might become difficult due to a lack of leniency in evaluating papers after an ISC examination.