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Journalism of Courage
In an effort to brighter the chances for students to grab the best colleges through the Karnataka Common Entrance Test, the directorate of minorities, Karnataka has written to the state government, proposing to discontinue CBSE affiliation for class 11 and 12 students studying at Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Residential CBSE schools. A proposal reviewed by Indian Express was sent last week to the government after students and parents demanded the minorities department to shift to the state curriculum (Pre University course or PUC) given the weightage, the qualifying exam marks add to CET.
CBSE affiliation to minority schools in Karnataka was introduced in the academic year 2022-23 in order to train the students for competitive exams like JEE, JEE Advance, and NEET, which would be a gateway to top higher education institutions in India. However, the proposal to discontinue with CBSE comes after students and parents made a submission to the minorities department that the students are better off in performing under the state curriculum and brightening their admission choices in educational institutions within the state.
“The difficulty level of the question paper in state curriculum is believed to be easier and moderate compared to CBSE. Hence, students feel they can perform better under state curriculum, although both boards are based on NCERT syllabus,” an official from the minorities department said.
While there are 29 of these residential schools, only 16 schools consisting of over 900 students have classes 11 and 12. The discontinuation of CBSE affiliation and the proposal to introduce state curriculum is said to apply to only these 16 residential schools. However, the CBSE affiliation will continue from classes 6 to 10 in the rest of the schools.
“Many parents and students believe that the students have an edge when they study the state curriculum. The marks they score in the PUC examination will be 10-15% higher than what they would score in the CBSE examination. With CET valuing the PUC marks, the students are believed to have an edge and secure a seat in better higher education institutions within Karnataka,” said Raghavendra T, director of the minorities department.
However, the department continues to train students for competitive examinations at a national level. “The regular teachers are now being given training by experts from IISc Bengaluru and Azim Premji University so that they can improve the learning capabilities of minority school students. Students need special training in science and mathematics to help them perform better in competitive examinations, especially at the national level,” said Raghavendra.
