For those who want to change boards after Class 10

Life may get a little more complicated for students in states where it is often necessary to change schools after Class 10, write Farah H Chitalwala and Mou Chakraborty.

Life may get a little more complicated for students in states where it is often necessary to change schools after Class 10.

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“We thought of admitting my daughter to an ISC Board school (run by West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education) after Class 10, as her current school isn’t good enough and there’s no other CBSE school in the vicinity. But absolute grading would mean that she will have to stay here,” says Ruma Mukherjee, whose daughter studies in Kalyani Model School, at Kalyani, near Kolkata in West Bengal. The state education council does not have a system to translate CBSE’s grades into marks, and seems in no hurry to work out one.

There’s a similar problem in the northeast. There, though, at least some people are talking of emulating CBSE. “Our courses ensure better grounding for students compared to CBSE, but many private and missionary schools are opting out. We might also have to follow a similar pattern for our students to compete at the national level,” says a senior officer of Secondary Education Board of Assam, who declined to be named since he’s not authorised to speak to the media. However, some boards like the one in Nagaland have already refused to change under the CBSE ‘onslaught’.

In Mumbai, most CBSE school principals have welcomed the move. CBSE schools in the city, unlike schools affiliated to the Maharashtra State Board and ICSE, are usually up to Class 12. Hence CBSE students don’t leave post Class 10 to join junior colleges, but continue in the same institute. “Over 80 per cent students continue in school till Class 12,” says Avnita Bir, principal, RN Podar School, Santa Cruz. “Hence there’s no need for a stressful checkpoint like the board examination, at that level,” she adds.

— With inputs from Rahul Karmakar