The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is contemplating to permit multiple affiliations to schools that are presently affiliated with it; this decision is not allowed under the current by-laws. While the CBSE is yet to give a formal notification on the matter, schools across Delhi-NCR are already looking forward to the move becoming a law. Almost all teachers that The Morning Standard spoke to opined that it is high time school education is made flexible.
JYOTI RANA, Principal, Army Public School, Noida
This is a welcome move. As of now, only some schools offer different boards under one banner. Having multiple boards in the same school will give a student a wider option to choose from, and also enrich the institution. It will save a lot of paperwork that a student wanting to change the board has to presently go through. New teachers will have to be appointed since every board has its own criteria, own by-laws to be followed. For instance, International Baccalaureate (IB) has a totally different curriculum, but that’s fine. Better management is possible by appointing different departmental heads, all of whom will report to a single reporting head (Principal).
DIVYA KAPOOR, Headmistress, Pragyan School, Greater Noida
Students who want to change the board but don’t want to leave the school will be benefited the most. This is especially true of adolescents, for whom adjusting to a new environment and getting into already thick friend circles is difficult. Having multiple boards will allow schools to have informal activities between these boards for the benefit of all students. There can be in-house competitions wherein each side shares their kind of expertise, which will bring out improvement in different categories of boards, and eventually we might have one single body of international standards to give wholesome education. The only downside I see is that schools have to add on to their infrastructure, have more teachers, invest in teacher training this is easy for fund-rich schools, but a hassle for the others.
JASKIRAN THAKUR, PGTSociology, Springdales School, Pusa Road
These days, most Class 12 students are attracted to the idea of going abroad for further studies. CBSE Board has a very different pattern from international boards, and their pass outs face a lot of difficulty. They feel lost on moving to foreign universities. The approach of CBSE and IB are very different. So, students who want to go abroad can shift to the IB Board after Class 10, as it will help them adapt to international universities’ teaching methodology much more comfortably.
UPASANA KAURA, PGTEnglish, Gyan Mandir Public School, Naraina
Since the CBSE system is very different from the international boards, children have great difficulty when they move out of it. But then, my point is why not make the CBSE as per global standards, and do away with this need of having multiple boards? Also, this idea will be tough for school managements as different boards have different curriculum and teaching methodology so either more teachers have to be hired or the existing teachers have to be trained as per the new boards that are allowed. The former requires lots of funds to be invested, while in the latter case the burden on the teachers will increase manifold. These are the practical difficulties that have to be looked into before taking any decision.