A Fair Game

Today , I
read an article which suggested to frame a curriculum which reaches to the
masses at the grass root level and which will be under the jurisdiction of a National Board for education in schools . This would make
sure that every child applying for his / her high school     ( Std. XI ) studies is at par with every other applicant. He
also gets the option of studying the respective
state language throughout his school years.

This year
SSC Board adopted the system of awarding internal
assessment marks which was already in force for the ICSE and CBSE
students. This year saw the pass percentage for the
state soar for the SSC students and the highest marks secured by the
state board student was comparable to his counterparts
from the ICSE and CBSE boards. This alone proves that the newly devised
framework of grading has worked in the favour of the student who is under
tremendous pressure when he faces the very first board examination. Framing of
a national curriculum implies the existing curriculum in various states and the
ICSE and CBSE boards be abolished; and  at the same time, this national curriculum is implemented in each and
every school in the country. The problem areas that instantly
surface are:  -   Affordability
to the parents in urban and rural areas
alike.

-        
Limiting the access of the parents to IB curriculum which adds a fair amount of snob
- value to the education.

-        
Recruitment of teachers to teach the newly framed syllabus and the re-training sessions that need to be provided to
the existing and the newly hired staff.

-        
The
admission criteria for the students in the
final year of schooling , the year before the system is established and implemented.

Though
the system abolishes every possible arguement especially concerning the
disadvantage that a state board student is exposed to as against his high
scoring counterparts of the New Delhi curriculum; the difficulties in the
process of implementing this board of education and reaching out to every nook
and corner of the country seem tedious as there are ample issues ( aforesaid )
to overcome. The state governments can frame such a policy, because the effort
seems worth it. Another alternative can be to stage Common Entrance Tests (CETs)
for all students securing admission into junior
colleges with no credit given to the standard 10 marks. Acquiring a minimum
pass percentage in std. 10 can be a pre-requisite for every
student applying for the streams of Science,
Commerce , Arts or Diploma Engineering. This again demands for a
syllabus which should framed for these exams without
providing bias to any state board of education. A question also arises
whether the student is prepared to go through the stress
of a competitive exam at an early age. Leniency in grading cannot be a
possible solution to ensure that a student scores well. It was well pointed out
that scoring a 100 per cent mark would also be a
possibility in the near future. The existing percentile system is a
feasible solution at this stage , but then again the students scoring above 90
percent at the ICSE and CBSE exams far outnumbers the SSC students. Hence, judging the student's merit on basis of his/her performance
in the competitive exams (CETs) makes the admission game fairer to play.