Drop idea of IB syllabus in government schools, says JSP

Kakinada: The Jana Sena on Thursday demanded that AP give up the idea of introducing IB (International Baccalaureate) syllabus in schools of Andhra Pradesh, as it is very expensive and will be of no use for students of the state.

Party’s political affairs committee (PAC) chairman Nadendla Manohar told media here that though law and finance departments have objected to this proposal, YSRC government is going ahead with the syllabus owing to a quid pro quo involved in the deal.

He said for introducing IB syllabus, state government has to pay Rs13–Rs17 lakh per school in Singapore dollars to a Switzerland company, which would train teachers in the IB syllabus. The government will end up paying Rs1,200–Rs1,500 crore for the training. In case of any dispute, only Switzerland laws will apply to the agreement.

Manohar pointed out that the IB syllabus is taught only in 4,000 schools in the world. Only 212 schools in India have taken to this syllabus. He said
that as per the agreement, AP government has decided to introduce the IB syllabus in 44,381 government, 13,406 private and 839 aided schools; without taking the opinion of students, teachers and parents.

Manohar wondered why the AP government is going ahead with IB syllabus when it dropped the idea of introducing CBSE syllabus in the state government schools, as it had to pay Rs1 lakh fee per school. Currently, CBSE syllabus is available in only 1,005 government schools, that too after central government made it available for free.

Manohar said when the government is unable to pay salaries to teachers, how would it spend crores on introducing the IB syllabus. He charged that there are plans to introduce the IB syllabus forcibly on 80 lakh students of the state.

The party’s erstwhile East Godavari district president Kandula Durgesh, PAC members Mootha Sashidhar, Pithani Balakrishna, S. Rajababu, T. Uday Srinivas, Thota Sudhir and T. Babu were present.