Kashmir Wire
Srinagar
After embracing NCERT for years, J&K’s Education Ministry has finally decided to get the Central Board of School Education (CBSE) into the state. On a pilot basis, four schools will have CBSE systems in place from the next academic year, highest placed sources in the government said.
“We have to have a start, our kids are losing for not having this,” a senior education ministry official told Kashmir Wire. “On a pilot basis we have decided to introduce it in four school across the state, two each in Jammu and Srinagar.”
Though the official said he is not in a position to offer any idea about which two schools in Jammu will adopt the CBSE systems and norms, he hinted that the SP Higher Secondary School and the Amira Kadal Girls Higher Secondary School could be the two from Kashmir.
J&K’s State Board of School Education (SBOSE) had adopted the NCERT systems and curriculum many decades back. It has at the best been amended to a limited level but not improved and changed as has happened in the rest of the India.
Currently more than 100 schools across J&K have adopted CBSE systems. These include most of the formal Army Public Schools, the Kendrya Vidalayas’, Jawahar Novodiya Vidalayas’ and the DPS chain of schools in the state. Initially, the CBSE board was quite reluctant in permitting the CBSE use in the state’s private sector. But some of the private school owners had to pitch a harsh battle to get it extended, sources in state’s education sector said.
State Board has been facing a lot of criticism for delaying updating the syllabus and getting the texts on the best of the printing formats.
With the introduction of the CBSE systems, the NCERT will have a competition, the next door, and possibly, help it fasten the improvements in the system. Unlike NCERT systems in state, CBSE systems have a early spring examination system. (Kashmir Wire)
