After studying state boards, Centre hints at change in curriculum

The education ministry has carried out a study across eight state boards comparing various parameters with the CBSE to rationalise its demand for a common assessment platform.

As part of the details of the data from the study, officials said they found that over 35 lakh students of class 10 are not reaching class 11 and 27.5 lakh students are failing these exams, with 7.5 lakh students not appearing for these exams at all.

In the higher secondary level, over 23.4 lakh students are dropping after class 12 due to exams and 18.6 lakh students are failing them, with 4.8 lakh students not appearing for the exam.

A senior ministry official said that they found a better gender parity index in government schools, as well as disparity in the choice of streams.

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“We have shared the data with state secretaries and held a day-long conference recently. This was a preliminary study, and we will now carry studies across boards by November-December,” the official said. A change in the curriculum cannot be ruled out, the official said, though the move is likely to attract protests from non-BJP states.

Officials said that apart from CBSE, ISCE and NIOS, eight states have their own boards for secondary as well as higher secondary level and that across the country the total examination boards increased from 50 in 2012 to 60 in 2022. For the study, secondary and higher secondary education boards of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Karnataka, Kerala, Manipur, Odisha, West Bengal, and Telangana were surveyed.

‘No level-playing field’

“Each board follows its own standard, syllabus and timelines for exams and results, and so there is no level playing field for students in terms of standard and movement across the boards. This also creates barriers for national level common tests such as CUET, JEE, NEET when compared to central board students,” an official said.

The pass percentage of students varies significantly among boards, said officials. In secondary education, the pass percentage of Meghalaya (57 per cent), Madhya Pradesh (61 per cent), Jammu and Kashmir (62 per cent) vary from Kerala (99.85 per cent), Telangana (97.6 per cent) and Punjab (97.8 per cent). In higher Secondary, the pass percentage of states like Andhra Pradesh (69 per cent), J&K (71 per cent), Karnataka (75 per cent), MP (78 per cent) are at odds with states like Tripura (97.6 per cent), Punjab (97.2 per cent), and Rajasthan (96.6 per cent).

The top five boards cover about 50 per cent of students while 50 per cent of the rest are enrolled in 55 boards. In secondary education, enrollment in states like UP (14 per cent), CBSE (11 per cent), Maharashtra (9 per cent), Bihar (9 per cent) and West Bengal (6 per cent) are high. In higher secondary, UP (16 per cent), CBSE (10 per cent), Maharashtra (10 per cent), Bihar (9 per cent) and West Bengal (6 per cent) have the highest enrollments.