Indyan Schools

Stress on autonomy for school education

 CBSE’s revised question paper format to include questions assessing Higher Order Thinking Skills

Ashok Ganguly, Chairman, CBSE, and N. Nagaraju, Regional Officer, CBSE, Chennai Region (left), at the CBSE Schools Principals’ meeting in Chennai

CHENNAI: It is important to provide a certain amount of autonomy in the school education system, according to Ashok Ganguly, chairman of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

Discussing the State Government’s move towards a uniform syllabus, in Chennai on Thursday, Dr. Ganguly told The Hindu that since education was a concurrent subject, States were free to consider such steps. However, he said an element of choice and flexibility was essential.

With some Matriculation schools unhappy with the move, since they feel that a uniform syllabus would dilute the quality of education they provide, a number of them are considering a shift to the CBSE system. Dr. Ganguly made it clear that the CBSE would not be able to accept them into its fold unless they were able to produce a ‘No Objection Certificate’ from the State Government.

With the Class 10 and 12 board examinations beginning in a week’s time, the CBSE was preparing to implement its revised question paper format, to include questions assessing Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) in children. Twenty per cent of the paper would include such questions to evaluate a student’s ability to reason and analyse, rather than test their memory power, said Dr. Ganguly. Once the examinations started, the CBSE would begin the process of giving head examiners face-to-face instructions on how to assess this section. While some schools and students were scrambling to accommodate this new format, Dr. Ganguly said it was merely part of the new national curriculum framework and that model question papers had been available on the CBSE website from September.

The CBSE planned to introduce new competency-based vocational courses for higher secondary students with the support and joint certification of industry bodies. Apart from an existing course in Financial Market Management, in association with the National Stock Exchange, the CBSE would launch courses in IT applications, general healthcare, fashion design and retail management. Each of these courses would be equivalent to three subjects at the higher secondary level, said Dr. Ganguly. That would leave students with only two more compulsory subjects for Classes XI and XII, one of which must be a language, although students would be permitted to take an optional third subject to allow them greater career flexibility. Dr. Ganguly said that while these vocational courses would give students the training needed to become entrepreneurs when they left school, the CBSE was also in talks with universities to ensure that these courses were given credit should students wish to receive further training.

Earlier in the day, Dr. Ganguly interacted with the principals of CBSE schools in the city, who shared their innovative modes of teaching. “We remain in the 20th century in terms of curriculum and design,” he said, pointing out that a large proportion of the world’s young workforce was Indian. Schools should be part of a network, co-creating curriculum, he said.

Bala Vidya Mandir, Vidya Mandir, L.N. Dadha, Sushil Hari International, Vel’s Vidyashram, Hindu Senior Secondary and PSBB K.K. Nagar schools made presentations. Cost-effective technology enhanced learning, innovative celebrations to improve understanding of a concept in Chemistry, using diagrams to demonstrate mathematical theorems without words, using newspapers to improve writing skills, learning phonics through role play, teaching values through mathematical concepts and theatre to demonstrate the various concepts were among the practices discussed.