The Central Board of Secondary Education's international curriculum (CBSE-i), until now restricted to around 25 schools abroad, will now be available to around 50 schools in India
“It is a cheaper alternative for students who, in order to get into good universities abroad, either have to do International Baccalaureate (IB) or the International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) after Class XII,” said Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal here on Tuesday.
The net-based programme will also have subjects like drama and dance. “It is not a distance programme; it is designed to help the teachers teach the child and it has a global reach. If you are studying history in Saudi, the subject will have 30 per cent of Saudi's history and 70 per cent of global history,” he said and added: “We have special subjects like “breakthrough” in the science stream which will focus on recent discoveries.
The CBSE-i operates through a portal which disseminates important information to teachers whose institution is subscribed to it and also has an expert panel to answer queries and was first introduced in 2010 for classes I and XI.
A new feature of the net-based programme is that it will be available to both students and parents.
Asked about the actual use of the portal to students, Mr. Sibal said: “When I was a law student abroad, I did not even have teachers, just a video in the classroom that taught me, I managed to get through the Bar exam using it.”
He also said that the material is not just textbook stuff made available online but has additional features in which assessment is skill-based and promotes critical and creative thinking.
The Minister also announced that the Association of Indian Universities (AIU) had already given recognition to CBSE-I and that he is hoping Kendriya Vidyalayas would also eventually adopt the programme.
