Applied maths option boosts enrollment among class XI students in CISCE schools
Telegraph | 15 September 2025
Several schools have noticed an uptick in the number of students opting for maths in Class XI after the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) introduced applied maths as an option alongside pure mathematics for the ISC 2027 batch.
Many commerce students, who would otherwise opt for business studies, have now chosen applied maths.
Schools that were hesitant to offer maths as a subject in Class XI to students who do not perform reasonably well in ICSE are now offering them applied maths.
“Students in the commerce section are mostly opting for applied maths. But many students in humanities, too, have chosen the subject,” said Father Roshan Tirkey, principal, St Xavier’s Collegiate School.
The syllabus in applied maths includes about 20 marks of financial mathematics.
Several schools said they were encouraging commerce and humanities students to take up applied maths with an eye on the future.
“Earlier, there would be students who want to take up maths in Class XI despite their ICSE maths score being low. We would have meetings with parents to explain their shortcomings. This year, applied maths has opened a window of opportunity for students who want to pursue maths despite their scores,” said Anil Jha, academic coordinator (Classes XI and XII) at The Heritage School.
In February, the council introduced two options for students appearing for ISC 2027 — applied maths or maths and Modern English or English.
Mathematics will be offered to students who want to pursue pure science, maths, engineering, or architecture at the undergraduate level and applied maths will be appropriate for those keen on humanities, commerce and finance, the council had said.
The chief executive and secretary of the CISCE, Joseph Emmanuel, told Metro that the subject had been “well received” by schools across the country.
“It is adaptive learning depending on the requirements of the learner. The purpose of teaching maths also depends on the area the student is aiming for in higher education. Those who want mathematics, science and engineering need higher maths, calculus. Medical science, humanities and commerce require statistics-based mathematics...,” said Emmanuel.
The director of education and development of the Julien Day Schools, Terence John, sad: “There is a definite increase in the number of students opting for maths in Class XI in all our four schools (Calcutta, Ganganagar, Kalyani and Howrah). Earlier, commerce students would opt for business studies and skip maths.”
“We asked some of the science students why they wanted applied maths, and they said that because they were interested in medicine and not engineering,” said John.
Most schools have either completed the registration for ISC or are in the process of doing so.
Many schools give students the option of switching subjects before they are registered for the ISC exams.
Students express their desire to switch mostly when they are struggling with some subjects after the unit assessments or the first term.
“We have received a few requests from students who want to shift from maths to applied maths in the commerce stream, and we have allowed them to change,” said Jha of The Heritage School.
Mousumi Saha, principal, National English School, said the number of students who would switch in other years was more.
“Earlier, after the unit tests, we would notice students struggling in a 25-mark paper. We would advise them to take up business studies. This time, we haven’t faced this,” she said.
In Class XII, some of the topics students will study in applied maths are linear programming, application of calculus in commerce and economics, financial maths (calculation of EMI), index numbers and moving averages.