CBSE -I: Govt’s answer to international boards

With the rising popularity of international schools in the country, now even the Central Board of School Education (CBSE) is offering an international curriculum.

For students who want to pursue their higher education abroad, CBSE has launched ‘CBSE-I’, which will be equivalent to boards like the International Baccalaureate (IB).

Around 50 schools across the country will offer this curriculum, including Kendriya Vidyalayas and private schools such as RN Podar School in Santa Cruz, which is set to offer the new curriculum from the next academic session. “We are starting the CBSE-I course from Class 1 for the next academic year. We are discontinuing with the conventional CBSE for new batches and from now onwards, admissions will be done only to CBSE -I,” said Avnita Bir, principal of the school.

Schools are claiming that those studying this curriculum will have an edge over the others. The entire curriculum, offered from Classes 1 to 12, will be taught through e-books, will include more foreign languages and different syllabi for other subjects.

Since the entire course will be totally online, the human resource development ministry is planning to give low-cost Aakash tablets to every student opting for this course.

But, parents are worried that this new syllabus will burn a deep hole in their pocket. The ministry has proposed that the annual course registration fee will be Rs1.5 lakh.