The State government has set the ball rolling to secure Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) affiliation to all schools in the State.
As a first step towards realisation of its goal, the CBSE has agreed in-principle to extend recognition to 1,092 schools in the first phase, and Central syllabus will be implemented in the first batch of selected schools from the academic year 2022. Students of Class 9 who will be admitted in April 2022, will appear for the Central Board examinations in 2024.
“The academic year 2024-25 will be a landmark year for the education sector in Andhra Pradesh as students will write the CBSE exams for the first time,” said Education Minister Adimulapu Suresh.
He said work on this front had already commenced. “We have revised the curriculum and the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) has been tasked with constitution of a panel of experts,” he said, adding that the Chief Minister was keen that students of the State shift to the Central Board syllabus, which had higher standards and would enable them to compete at global level. “We want our students to write examinations that are recognised at the national level and we have already set the process in motion,” he said.
The State has almost 6,000 high schools (Classes 6 to 10) with a nearly five lakh student strength writing their 10th Class Board exams. “We have instructed the officials of the School Education Department to maintain high standards while designing the syllabus of lower classes also to facilitate easy transition to the CBSE syllabus in the higher classes,” Mr. Suresh said.
Principal Secretary, School Education, B. Rajasekhar and incharge of AP Residential Educational Institutions Society Col. V. Ramulu met CBSE Chairman Manoj Ahuja and Secretary Anurag Tripathi in Delhi a couple of weeks ago with the proposal. The Central Board officials spelt out the conditions for affiliation, and the State officials realised that about 1,000 schools in the State had the required infrastructure and would be eligible for affiliation. “To facilitate the affiliation, the Board officials extended the October 31 deadline by a month and also allowed payment of the affiliation fee in one go,” said Mr. Ramulu.
