From 2025 onwards, students appearing for the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) and Indian School Certificate (ISC) exams will be assessed under a restructured evaluation framework.
As per the revised rules by the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), the traditional “Pass Certificate Awarded” or “Not Awarded” tags will be replaced with a more straightforward “Qualified” or “Not Qualified” outcome.
According to Careers360, all successful candidates will now receive a unified document, the Pass Certificate Cum Statement of Marks. For ISC (Class XII), students must pass in at least four subjects, including English, and secure a passing grade in Socially Useful Productive Work (SUPW) and Community Service, which are internally assessed. The minimum passing mark has been set at 35%.
For ICSE (Class X), students must register for a minimum of six subjects and meet the pass criteria in at least five of them, again including English, along with passing SUPW and Community Service. The minimum subject-wise passing mark for ICSE is 33%.
Careers360 also reports that the council has done away with compartment examinations, beginning with the 2024 batch. In its place, an “Improvement Examination” has been introduced, allowing students to reappear in a maximum of two subjects in the same academic year.
The higher of the two scores — original and improvement — will be treated as final. In cases where a student’s overall result changes from Not Qualified to Qualified, the original documents must be returned to CISCE through the school.
Additionally, changes have been introduced in the process of rechecking and re-evaluation. Students can apply online for a recheck within four days of result declaration, where CISCE will verify whether all answers have been evaluated and marks totalled correctly.
If still dissatisfied, students may request a full re-evaluation within three days of the recheck outcome. Both services are chargeable, and re-evaluation marks will be treated as final.
The council has also reiterated that any defaced or fraudulently obtained documents — including marksheets or certificates — will be subject to cancellation by the Chief Executive and Secretary of CISCE.
