One nation, one board: Are we ready for it

One nation, one board: Are we ready for it

Wide Infrastructure Gap Among Schools Across The Country May Be Difficult To Bridge

Manash Pratim Gohain | TNN

New Delhi: If Kapil Sibal has his way, the 33 state boards in the country may be on their way out as could be the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), to be replaced by a single board. And a single board examination in class XII.
Sibals flashy 100 day plan has impressed many but the feasibility of such a vast exercise and the logistics of actually implementing the conversion is something that the government may need to work very minutely upon, warn academics. There is a catch too. If the move will remove the stress of class XII boards, wont it double that of the class XII examination
Says Dr Jayanti Dutta, a clinical psychologist and a faculty of Delhi University, At the age of 15 when the child takes class X examinations he gets a practical feel of his own capabilities and of where he stands. So when class XII happens he is more prepared. Universalisation of education needs to start right from nursery. Isnt class X a little too late
The constitution of the new board, says former CBSE chairman Ashok Ganguly requires a lot of thought and planning. The first concern is that the very credibility of our internal assessment is so low that how does one judge students Moreover the heterogeneity of our schools - while some schools have the best of facilities and teachers, a large number of them dont even have blackboards - is a huge impediment in standardisation of education. It is a good move, but there has to be some kind of assessment of the progress made by both the student and the school, Ganguly - who is now in charge of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan in Uttar Pradesh - said.
But the good thing about the proposal is that it seeks to change the system of allotment of streams. Teachers know a students interests the best. So if a one-off examination stops being the criterion for stream selection, we will prevent a lot of problems arising out of wrong choice, said Pragya Srivastava, joint commissioner of Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan.
Welcoming this de-stressing initiative, principal of Laxman Public School, Usha Ram said: We have been waiting for this for a long time and had made representations. This should be implemented systematically now.
The very format of a single board would mean that the text books and the quality of teaching become crucial and with that will come massive preparations in the nature of a curriculum framework and also teachers training.
S L Jain, chairman of National Progressive Schools Conference , said: Even under a single board a lot of decentralization would be needed as there are a lot of concerns to be taken care of. Then there will be schools having primarily first generation learners, schools in tribal areas and schools with no teacher. In such a situation a uniform system is not possible. Simply introducing uniform text books and syllabus does not ensure uniformity . The challenge is to ensure uniformity in infrastructure and quality of teachers.
Apart from replacing the present assessment procedure of giving marks to awarding grades, the government would also explore the possibility of setting up an independent accreditation body for schools to ensure quality.