ONLINE STORY: SCHOOL SYLLABUS

MAHARASHTRA TO INTRODUCE AN INTERNATIONALLY

 ACCEPTED SCHOOL BOARD

With an aim to improve the education quality and standard of syllabus of the school children in Maharashtra, the state decided to introduce a new syllabus all together at par with the international boards such as the  International Bachelorette (IB) or the IGCSE.

“The idea is to upgrade existing government schools and provide the best quality education on par with the International Baccalaureate (IB) syllabus. Currently, we have chosen 100 government schools where this syllabus will be implemented. Eventually, we plan to reach all schools,” Education Secretary Nand Kumar. 

This initiative is proposed to be all geared up and ready to be implemented by the next year 2019. Seven committees have already been set up for various tasks like framing the syllabus, project management, and training and development. The committee members have been appointed and after the final registration of the board, the official announcement is to be made.The board will operate from Pune and will monitor schools from nursery levels (four-eight age group) to Class XII (16-18 age group). It will be available for schools imparting education in English, Marathi, Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati, Telugu, Tamil and Kannada. Though the board will be operating on a self-financed basis, it will receive funding of ₹2.25 crore from the education department. The board will oversee international educational standards in many languages, like English, Marathi, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Gujarati and Kannada.

Only a few schools from Daman and Diu are affiliated to the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education. Central boards like CBSE and CISCE too have a few affiliated schools outside the country. "Today, boards from outside the country are so popular and our schools get affiliated to it. We want to be able to provide similar high-quality education and once we have perfected the curriculum, we hope schools outside the state and the country will want to affiliate themselves with our board. We expect this to happen the following year," said Nandkumar, secretary, school education department. 

Although the idea is appreciated by the educationalists, many teachers across the state have shown their disagreement.  "The existing board needs a lot of work and resources for the problems to be fixed. So, instead of the state shifting focus to a new set-up, they must first upgrade to the board that is already catering to lakhs of students every year," said a former member of the state board.

It is expected that after a successful run of the international syllabus, schools outside India could register for the Maharashtra international board just as the Kerala board adopted by schools in the middle east.