CBSE to go international from next academic year

Fri, Nov 6 05:38 AM

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is learnt to have got the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry's approval to launch from next year an international school board on the lines of the UK-based IGCSE, affiliated to the University of Cambridge, and Geneva based International Baccalaureate (IB). The CBSE International is expected to be rolled out in time for the next academic session and will offer flexibile curricula keeping in mind regional aspirations.

"It is planned to establish CBSE as an international board so that schools in foreign nations can be affiliated to the CBSE just like they do with IB or Cambridge. While there are quite a few schools abroad affiliated to the CBSE, these are essentially run by NRIs and cater to the Indian Diaspora. The plan is to take this to another level and tout CBSE as an international brand as it is felt that a sizable number of countries would benefit and like to affiliate," highly placed sources confirmed. Over 10,000 schools are affiliated to the CBSE, over 125 of them outside the country, mostly in Gulf countries.

The CBSE International will be positioned as a value for money international board of education highlighting its traditional strengths in Science and Mathematics. "While the finer details are being worked out by the HRD ministry and CBSE, it is expected that there will be some changes in curricula and examination systems. While Science, Mathematics, English would hardly require any tweaking, the Social Studies module would have to change its focus from Indian history, geography, art and culture," the source added.

A committee of CBSE officials, principals and academics is in the process of developing the Social Studies module which will offer subjects ranging from Indian History to American and European History as well as International History. The same approach will be used to broad base other contextual and language related subjects. "The CBSE International curriculum should be ready by November-end and we should be ready to rollout the Board for affiliations by the 2010-11 academic session," said a source.

The CBSE is already moving ahead with school examination reforms, making Class X boards optional and switching from marks-based assessments to a grade-based system, moving away from the end of the year exam centric format to a Continued and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) and working overall to reduce the stress on students.

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