In their anxiety to make a mark in National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) 2018, a few matriculation schools in the region are following the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) pattern at the higher secondary level, teachers say.
Officials are aware of the practice, but are not in a position to curb it, according to teachers’ organisations.
Since mark-based ranking no longer matters to determine the performance of an educational institution, the managements encourage handling of CBSE content for teaching-learning in classrooms, a functionary said.
The consequence is that the very purpose of holding the public examination for eleventh standard has been defeated, a headmaster of a government school observed.
Handling of CBSE content with the eco-system created for State Board does not augur well for students. For instance, teachers handling CBSE content are the same who have so far been teaching under the State Board pattern.
“It is unrealistic on the part of private schools to assume that application-oriented thinking can be infused by just replacing the State Board books with those of CBSE,” a senior teacher with experience in handling both streams said expressing apprehensions that such a practice could turn counterproductive.
To appear for NEET, it is enough for a candidate to have secured a minimum of 50% marks in aggregate in physics, chemistry, biology and English. But there is going to be a rude awakening later on for those students who do not succeed in NEET as the mark-based performance will then come into play for admission to other courses, he explained.
Meanwhile, NEET Coaching Centres, started block-wise by the Government, have come to depend mainly on government school teachers for equipping the students.
Barring a few centres, they are a drain on resources elsewhere in Tiruchi district for which 16 such centres have been sanctioned, teachers said.
