Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Adopt CBSE Syllabus in all Kerala Schools

Another controversy is brewing up in the school education sector in Kerala, this time it is on granting of permission for more CBSE schools.

Private organisations with or without business motives are lining up to set up CBSE school because there is a demand for it. It is when the number of students in the Kerala syllabus schools are coming down by lakhs year after year. The growing demand for CBSE schools and decrease in number of students in Kerala syllabus schools are clear sign for the increased demand from people for CBSE schools.

I am wondering why the Kerala government can't adopt the CBSE syllabus altogether by converting all government, aided and unaided schools into CBSE syllabus. When there is a system with perceived quality which is rapidly accepted by parents and gaining popularity, why there should have another board? It is duplication of the system and waste the national resources. By adopting CBSE in all Kerala schools and winding-up the Kerala Board can save millions of rupees annually for administering examination and maintaining the board. The saved amount can be utilised to improve existing government schools, setting up more government schools and improving overall education infrastructure in the state.

The opposition from teachers on allowing more CBSE schools is just because of their job, nothing else. They are only bothered about their job, not the ultimate quality of education or benefit of the children. When all government aided and unaided schools are converted, it will not affect their job. More over there will be a slowdown in the number of new schools in the private sector. Most of the private schools appearing every nook and cranny of the state are not providing quality education. I think it is the medium that make these schools attractive to parents and if it is available in the government schools which employ properly qualified teachers, then it will have a positive impact in the school education in Kerala. The poor quality private schools will be either closed down naturally or they will be forced to improve their quality by market force.

One possible issue is that it might lead to ignoring Malayalam altogether when all schools are converted to CBSE. Kerala government can make it compulsory to teach Malayalam up to class 4 or 7. There should be provision to protect the children transferred from other states or foreign countries where they might not have got opportunity to learn Malayalam.

It will be very sensitive issue for people who are very nostalgic and politicians who are reluctant to change and always looking for some issues to keep them busy.

It will stop bringing up two grades of children one who got education in the Malayalam Medium Kerala Syllabus and one from English Medium Central Board. If we adopt the CBSE syllabus in all Kerala schools, it will be a beginning of an era where every Keralite children gets same education irrespective of their family or financial background.

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