In 2 years, 70 matriculation schools get CBSE affiliation
There are about 4,000 private matriculation schools, 559 CBSE and 77 ICSE schools
By : n. arun kumar
Update: 2014-11-25 08:02 GMT
Chennai: An increasing number of matriculation schools in Tamil Nadu is getting Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) affiliation after the state implemented samacheer kalvi (uniform syllabi) a couple of years ago for ‘academic freedom and administrative flexibility’. In the past two years, over 70 matriculation schools from Tamil Nadu have joined the CBSE stream.
Asked about the migration of matriculation schools to CBSE in Tamil Nadu, D.T. Sudarshan Rao, Regional Officer (Chennai region), CBSE said that about 70 to 80 schools from Tamil Nadu had got affiliated with CBSE in the past two years and CBSE headquarters in New Delhi was getting more applications from the state in the recent past.
There are about 4,000 private matriculation schools, 559 CBSE and 77 ICSE schools in Tamil Nadu.
Pointing out that over 50 matriculation schools in the state were waiting in the pipeline to get affiliated with CBSE this year, K.R. Nandakumar, secretary of Tamil Nadu Nursery, Primary, Matriculation and Higher Secondary Schools Association said that with the introduction of samacheer kalvi and implementation of differential fee structure for matriculation and CBSE schools in the state, several private matriculation schools shifted to CBSE.
“Matriculation school students are not able to do well in the all India level competitive exams whereas their CBSE friends come out with flying colours. Now the central board does not want a No Objection Certificate (NoC) from the state government, which has made the task of getting CBSE affiliation much easier for matric schools,” he said.
Dr N.Vijayan, correspondent of the Zion group of schools, which also has a CBSE school, said that both the systems had their advantages and disadvantages. “CBSE encourages students with creative thinking, but in the state board the system is such that most of the questions in the exam are from the last page of the lesson. The central board has the grade system and tests the student’s comprehensive knowledge, but the state system does not,” he said.
Listing out the advantages of the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) board, former chairman of ICSE Rev. Dr. Jose Aikara said that Cambridge University had recognised ICSE’s Class 12 exams, which exempt students passing out under it from taking the TOEFL exam.
“Language is optional in Class 12 and students can take any subject they want. There is no combination system in ICSE,” he added.