HYDERABAD: With speculation being rife on the possibility of a unified board for SSC and Intermediate, reactions from the teaching community, experts and students have started pouring in. Touted as the Telangana Secondary Education Board, it has evoked a mixed reaction.
Barring the CBSE and ICSE, and Central government schools like Kendriya Vidyalayas and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh are the only states in India where Class 10 and plus two are under one body.
Even the Centre’s flagship programme Samagrah Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) has defined school education up to Class 12. However, a majority of states have overlooked this and continue with their individual autonomous Intermediate boards.
Those against the inclusion of Class 12 or Intermediate in the school education system are of the view that having an autonomous Intermediate board gives an upper hand to the State students, particularly in competitive examinations. However, there was a unanimous consensus that the merger of the two would limit the scope of profit-making by corporate institutions.
Teachers working at government schools, too, are rooting for the proposed merger of Intermediate education with school education as that would mean that those with post graduation degrees would be eligible for promotion as junior lecturers (JL).
“Till 2000, 40 per cent of post-graduation teachers were eligible for promotion to JL posts. If the proposal is implemented, residential-school teachers, particularly those of model schools, would be benefited. The 80,000 JL vacancies in government Intermediate colleges would also be filled by regular teachers,” said Chava Ravi, general secretary of the Telangana State United Teachers Federation (TS-UTF).
Others like P Prameela, academic head, Narayana Group of institutions feel that since the CBSE has been functioning efficiently on the same premise, it should not be a problem for them, provided there is clarity on how they would want to accord permission to the private institutions in State.
Unlike their corporate counterparts, private junior colleges are not very optimistic about the proposed merger.