Education

Till few years back for matriculation exams, which is the first step by students for higher studies in college, there used to mainly 2 boards who used to conduct the matriculation exams, and they were State Secondary School Board or Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). In the last few years there are few International Education Boards or System have come to India and many high end schools are started opting for this education system.

In India, two international systems are gaining popularity and they are International Baccalaureate (IB) and  Cambridge Assessment International Education (CIE). Apart from offering international practices and academic standards, their curricula have also adjusted to Indian academic calendar. CIE offers the option of March examination specially for Indian students. These boards also offer a range of Indian subjects such as Sanskrit and Hindi. But these international curricula, currently being offered  come up with very hefty fees.

Presently CIE has a strength of about 67,300 students in India and  more than 400 schools across the country are offering this education system and world wide this system has a strength of about 2.2 million students in 160 countries. CIE system grew by 10% between 2014 and 16 and another 6.1% in 2017. IB  system has about 4000 students in India and are opted by about 145 school across the nation and world wide IB curricula has a strength of about 1.2 million students in 147 countries.  The strength of IB system has also increased by ten fold in last decade, in 2003, only 11 schools offered this system, by 2013 this number had gone up to 107. Maharashtra is leading in this trend with 41 schools offering  IB education system. This growth story also defies the general perception that CIE & IB students go abroad for higher studies, but the fact is large chunk of students stay back in India for higher studies and do well.

CIE is barely 6000 students short of  getting registration from  Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations(ISC). Presently CIE is getting more acceptance in Indian environment as top universities around the world are accepting Cambridge qualifications and are also getting popular with Indian universities. As per the spoke person of Cambridge South Asia the  cost is comparatively higher because of  investment it takes to create such a curriculum, and secondly we also work with universities and higher education institutions so that they understand what are standards of  students educated in our system. These type of schools offer varying facilities, and it would be unfair to call them expensive without looking at the outcome of the education imparted to the students.

The CIE curriculum is about zero rote learning, it is more skilled based and with sync of  need of the future.

So, school education in India has come long way, where parents have many choices for their wards as per their earning capacities Till about 2 decades back you did not have any choice, as that time all the schools are mostly  affiliated to State Boards, other than the schools which were affiliated to CBSE but at that time admission was mostly given to the children of govt employees who had a transferable job.

I still remember, when I was schooling in early 60s- I passed my SSC in 1965 ( that time SSC was Class XI and not class X which is at present). The fees structure would be like Rs 5 per month for class V, and increasing by Rs 1 per month for subsequent classes with Rs 11 for class XI. In present scenario fees can be in the range of  12 to 15,000 per month at the lowest level ie class I for CIE courses in a decent school, and it may go up to Rs 1,00,000 per month in high end schools. For people of my generation, it is very difficult to absorb in their mind that the school education system can be so expensive.

So presently you can choose the school for your child as per your family’s earning capacity, as the fees structure in various schools starts from few hundred rupees per month to any amount.

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