NEW DELHI: Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal on Tuesday said the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) would soon introduce its international curriculum, CBSE-I, in schools in the country on a trial basis.
Sibal launched the new website of the CBSE and the National Vocational Education Qualification Framework (NVEQF) to be implemented in polytechnics, engineering colleges and other colleges in the university systems from 2012-13.
The CBSE- I provides education on the pattern of the Geneva-based International Baccalaureate (IB), which is increasingly
becoming popular in the country.
Sibal said, “Some students want to go outside after Class XII. They take the IB course. We should also provide some alternative for them. This will be an option for students who want to go out of India for higher studies after Class XII. It is less expensive and a quality oriented course.”
The HRD Minister said the Association of Indian Universities (AIU) had already given recognition to the CBSE-I and hoped that Kendriya Vidyalayas and other schools would come forward to adopt the programme.
The NVEQF programmes are sector specific and the sectors like IT, media, entertainment, telecommunications, mobile communications, automobile, construction, retail, food processing, tourism, hotels, jewellery design and fashion design have been identified for implementation.
A student can choose to avail competency-based skill learning along with general education in this scheme without losing the possibility of changing course and moving at any certificate level into a formal system of education and vice versa. This is expected to cater to at least five million students for vocational degree and diploma every year, which can provide self-employment or being meaningfully employed if even one-third of the institutions are approved to conduct these programmes.