Speaking Tuesday at the International Indian School-Dammam, CBSE Chairman Vineet Joshi said the three schools were among 25 CBSE-affiliated schools that have opted to join the new curriculum.
“Most of them are Indian community schools in the Gulf region, and the reason for that is because a majority of CBSE-affiliated schools outside India are located in the Gulf region,” Joshi said.
“Those who are interested can sign up for it. It is not mandatory. It is up to the parents to allow their children to opt for the new curriculum. All three schools will have both the old curriculum and the new curriculum.”
Joshi, however, highlighted many salient features of the new curriculum.
“It is of international standard and gives a global perspective to the subjects of study. For example, while the subject of history in the existing syllabus deals mainly with Indian history, the new syllabus will focus on world history. The new curriculum is not simply textbook-oriented. It has been devised to replicate the curriculum of international boards such as the International Baccalaureate.”
According to Joshi, the new curriculum will help students to compete better at international level. “It will be easier for them to study anywhere in the world,” he said.
“Most importantly, the new curriculum gives greater importance to activity-based teaching. Also, the teaching methodology will be radically different in the sense that the new curriculum will encourage scientific enquiry.”
He said initially the new syllabus would be introduced only in Class I and Class IX.
“Every following year the new syllabus would be introduced in a new class. Over the course of the next three years, the curriculum will be extended to all classes,” he said.
Joshi said the new curriculum was ideally suited for those students who are thinking of going abroad for higher studies.
“If they plan to come back to India, then the traditional curriculum is fine.”
Talking about the latest changes in India’s education policy, Anshu Vaish of India’s Ministry of Human Resources said the whole idea of the reforms is to do away with rote learning and to remove the fear of failure.
“We realized a very threatening environment existed in our schools that was not conducive to healthy learning. Some children may be good in one discipline; others may be proficient in other ones,” Vaish said.
“Now, everything will be taken into account when it comes to the assessment of a child.”
Joshi and other delegates earlier met with parents and explained the new system, which relies on grades rather than the old marking system.
Called continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE), it looks at academic and non-academic aspects of student performance before promoting them to the next class.
The delegation will be in Jeddah on Wednesday and in Riyadh on Thursday.
