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De-traumatise education in India, says Sibal
Published on Fri, Jun 26, 2009 at 01:18, Updated on Fri, Jun 26, 2009 at 01:45 in India section
Tags: Class 10 Board, Kapil Sibal , New Delhi
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New Delhi: With "expansion, inclusion and excellence" as his guiding factors to revamp Indian education, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal on Thursday announced a slew of measures, including optional Class 10 Board exams, accreditation agencies for schools, free education and private sector involvement in primary learning.
Sibal, who announced as many as 40 legal, policy and administrative initiatives for the first 100 days of the UPA Government, made a strong pitch to "de-traumatise education" and said there was no need for a Class 10 Board examination.
CNN-IBN spoke to the Minister on his 100-day plans. Excerpts from the interview:
CNN-IBN: De-traumatise education, that seems to be the buzzword of your ministry's 100-day action plan on education. What spurred you to do this? And what is essentially wrong with the system?
Kapil Sibal: At the moment the school system is overburdened. The child and the parents go through trauma because there is Class X and Class XII exams and in between there are other exams also. After school children carry a heavy burden of books back home while mothers pour over them to teach their children. This is not the way forward in the education sector, we really need to de-traumatise it.
CNN-IBN: That sounds good but surprisingly many of the students we spoke to aren’t as thrilled about having the 10th Board exam being scrapped. In fact they say it makes them more competitive.
Kapil Sibal: Those who prefer to take the exam can go for the 10th Board, if they so want. But then there are children who don't want it, and they can because ultimately it is about moving from class 10th to class 11th in the same school, why should they have to go through a Board exam?
CNN-IBN: Mr Sibal, there is complete merit in your argument but there are lakhs of students in rural India who take the tenth standard as a benchmark and then move to vocational course. So passing tenth is still a big benchmark in rural India.
Kapil Sibal: Good, good. For example if a child has to move from class tenth to pre-university then he has to take the Board exam because there is no other way to move to pre-university. But if you're in the same school and you know what you want to do, supposing that the parent and the child and the teacher thinks that a child should move to Humanities, they already know that, then why should they do an exam? There can be a different method of assessment.
CNN-IBN: The system has been around for a long while. How difficult is it going to be to convince schools and boards across the country?
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Mr Kapil Sibal has just won my vote for doing the right thing. The education system does need an overhaul
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Dear Minister Kapil Sibal, in your interviews you had mentioned that Class X board examination has to be optional so
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A very good scheme indeed.. Well apparently i studied in a CBSE board and later migrated to Matric Board in
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I welcome this move. I hope this Education Bill should be enforced as soon as possible .
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upto 8th standard , there should be GRADING system. 9th &10th standard should be clubbed and at the end of
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