The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) on Tuesday announced the schedule for the 2027 board exams, with class 10 and 12 exams set to begin from Feb 15 and 9, respectively. A total of 3,79,980 candidates will appear for the two examinations. The ICSE (class 10) examination will see 2.70 lakh candidates from 3,106 affiliated schools, while more than 1.1 lakh candidates from 1,651 schools will appear for the ISC (class 12) examination.The ICSE examination will cover 76 subjects or papers, while the ISC examination will feature 60 subjects. "The ICSE year 2027 examination will commence on February 15, 2027, and conclude on March 31, 2027. The examination will be conducted across 2,835 examination centres in India and overseas."The credibility of an examination system rests on the fairness of its processes, the integrity of its administration and the confidence it inspires among students, parents and institutions," said Joseph Emmanuel, chief executive and secretary of CISCE.The largest ICSE candidate concentrations are from Uttar Pradesh (51,168), West Bengal (46,521), Karnataka (33,417), Maharashtra (31,035), Punjab (19,308) and Jharkhand (17,201), reflecting the extensive geographical spread of the CISCE's affiliated school network.The ISC year 2027 examination will begin on February 9 and conclude on April 8. A total of 1,10,025 candidates from 1,651 affiliated schools will appear across 1,477 examination centres in India and overseas.Among the states, Uttar Pradesh again accounts for the highest number of ISC candidates (34,702), followed by West Bengal (30,235), Uttarakhand (5,629), Punjab (5,479), Jharkhand (5,356), Maharashtra (4,660), Tamil Nadu (3,572), Kerala (3,491) and Karnataka (3,010)."A significant operational change for the ICSE year 2027 examination relates to the examination timings. The reading time will now commence at 10 am, followed by the writing time at 10.15 am. Earlier, the reading and writing times were 10.45 am and 11 am, respectively."Candidates appearing for the ICSE examination must ensure that they are seated in their respective examination halls or rooms by 9.45 am," he added.