ICSE Class 10 Home Science Syllabus 2026-27

Part 1: Theory Syllabus (100 Marks)

The theory paper covers five units, moving from household management to child development, nutrition, textiles and community awareness.

Unit 1: Home Management

●       Household finances: the concept of a family budget, its three types, surplus, balanced and deficit, and the factors that shape it, family composition, life cycle stage and socio-economic status.

●       Kitchen space organisation: kitchen layouts including one-walled, corridor, L-shaped, U-shaped and Island, the modular kitchen, and the work triangle, the three centres of preliminary preparation, cooking and washing.

●       Home furnishing: its three objectives, beauty, expressiveness and functionalism, and the factors that guide the choice of curtains, floor coverings and upholstery.

Unit 2: Growth and Development in Middle Childhood

●       Milestones of development: the meaning of gang age, and physical, social, emotional, cognitive and language development between the ages of 6 and 12.

●       Role of family, peer group and school in shaping social development during this stage.

●       Learning difficulties: the meaning and symptoms of dyslexia (reading), dysgraphia (writing), dyscalculia (mathematics) and ADHD, along with how family, school and peers can support acceptance and sensitisation.

Unit 3: Meal Planning

●       Balanced diet: the five food groups, cereals and roots, pulses and legumes, milk and meat products, fruits and vegetables, and sugars and fats, with sources and nutritional contribution for each.

●       Meal planning: its definition, guiding principles, importance and the factors that affect it.

●       Food hygiene: safe handling across purchase, storage, preparation and serving, and the classification of food as perishable, semi-perishable or non-perishable.

●       Food preservation: household methods including sun drying, freezing, and the use of salt, sugar, spices, oil and chemical preservatives.

Unit 4: Selection and Care of Textiles and Clothing

●       Fabric selection: seven influencing factors, age, sex, occupation, season, occasion, fashion and purchasing power.

●       Readymade garment selection: fit, colour, workmanship, cost and maintenance.

●       Laundering: step by step household methods for cotton, silk, wool and synthetics, and the role of detergents, soaps, starch, blue and optical brighteners.

Unit 5: Communication and Extension

●       Precise definitions of 13 key terms including gender discrimination, women's empowerment, sex ratio, child labour, human trafficking, female infanticide and foeticide, carbon footprint and population explosion.

●       Understanding, significance and target group of five government schemes, DWCRA, MNREGA, Ayushman Bharat or PMJAY, Ujjwala Yojna and Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna.

●       Communication aids such as posters, brochures, pamphlets, puppet shows and street plays, and how each is used to address social concerns.

Part 2: Internal Assessment (100 Marks)

Candidates complete a minimum of five practical oriented assignments through the year, chosen across Home Management, Human Development, Foods and Nutrition, Textiles and Communication and Extension, followed by a Final Test where an external examiner tests one or more aspects of Home Science.

Suggested assignment areas

●       Foods and Nutrition: identifying pulses, cereals and spices, cooking demonstrations, food preservation such as pickles and jams, and classifying a day's food intake by nutrient group.

●       Human Development: evaluating play materials, observing children at a day-care centre or special school, and recording behaviour during structured observation.

●       Textiles and Clothing: comparing fabric samples, identifying fibres through the burning test, and planning room interiors through colour and furnishing choices.

●       Resource Management: planning a waste recycling system, preparing a compost pit, gardening, and drafting a family budget from real household information.

●       Communication and Extension: designing a leaflet on consumer rights, or communicating an environmental issue through a poster, collage or street play.

Marking and evaluation

Assignments are assessed independently by the subject teacher and an external examiner, each contributing 50 marks, against five criteria, Planning, Efficiency, Manipulation, Quality Produced and Appearance or Arrangement, each scored up to 4 marks at the top grade.

How to Prepare for ICSE Class 10 Home Science

●       Learn definitions precisely, since this subject is marked on exact terminology far more than approximate understanding.

●       For kitchen layouts, practise sketching each type quickly, one-walled, corridor, L-shaped, U-shaped and Island, since diagram-based questions are common.

●       Build a comparison table for dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia and ADHD, since examiners frequently ask students to distinguish between them.

●       For the five food groups, prepare sources and nutritional contribution side by side rather than learning them separately.

●       For the five government schemes, memorise the full name, significance and target group as one unit for each scheme rather than three separate facts.

●       Spread your five practical assignments across different categories, Foods, Human Development, Textiles, Resource Management and Communication, to show breadth rather than depth in just one area.

●       For observation based assignments such as a day-care or special school visit, keep dated, detailed written records, since these carry real weight in the Planning and Quality criteria.

Why Trust This Syllabus Guide

This page is compiled and maintained by the Future Topper editorial team and reviewed by Nimish Chhabra, co-founder of Future Topper, an ICSE and ISC study material platform built specifically around board-aligned, syllabus-mapped content for Indian students. The structure and topics listed here are mapped against the official CISCE curriculum for Home Science, and the page is checked periodically to reflect any changes the council issues.

For the legally binding version of the syllabus, always cross check the latest circular published directly by CISCE at cisce.org. This page is intended as a study companion, not a replacement for the official document.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long is the Home Science theory paper and how many marks is it?

The theory paper is 2 hours for 100 marks, which is higher than the 80 marks carried by the theory paper in many other ICSE subjects.

How many marks does the Internal Assessment carry?

100 marks, split equally between the Subject Teacher (50 marks) and an External Examiner (50 marks), so internal assessment carries the same weight as theory.

How many practical assignments are required in Class 10?

Five practical oriented assignments as prescribed by the teacher, in addition to a Final Test conducted by the external examiner.

What is the work triangle in kitchen planning?

The work triangle is the imaginary triangle formed by the three main work centres in a kitchen, preliminary preparation, cooking and washing, and it is used to plan kitchens for maximum efficiency with minimum unnecessary movement.

What is the difference between dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyscalculia?

Dyslexia affects reading, dysgraphia affects writing, and dyscalculia affects mathematics and number concepts. All three, along with ADHD, are covered under learning difficulties in Unit 2.

What are the five food groups listed in the syllabus?

Cereals, roots and tubers; pulses and legumes; milk and meat products; fruits and vegetables; sugars and fats. Sources and nutritional contribution are expected for each group.

What is gang age?

Gang age describes the developmental stage roughly between 6 and 12 years, when children form small, tightly knit peer groups, show strong group loyalty, and increasingly prefer the company of friends over family.

What household methods of food preservation are covered?

Sun drying, freezing, and preservation using salt, sugar, spices, oil and chemical preservatives, seven methods in total.