Problems of CBSE schools to be addressed soon

KOCHI: The issues put forth by the CBSE managements association will be taken up with Union Minister of Human Resources and Development (HRD) Kapil Sibal, Union Minister of State for HRD Daggubati Purandeswari has said. She was speaking after inaugurating the All-Kerala School Managers Conference at BTH Sarovaram here on Sunday. The state’s guideline that educational institutions should have a minimum of three acres of land in place of the existing provision of two acres will be taken up. The issue of curriculum will also be taken up.
Twelve thousand schools affiliated to the CBSE among 12 lakh schools across the country and more wanting to be affiliated to it shows the popularity of the CBSE, she said. “We aim at achieving 30 per cent enrolment rate in higher education by 2020. For this, elementary education and tertiary education should complement each other rather than being  watertight compartments,” she said.
The RTE Act, which will be beneficial to the disadvantaged and the disabled, will be full-fledged by 2013, she said.
Quoting Vivekananda, she said that education must be a panacea for overcoming evil. Education must help build character and turn students into global citizens. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is an ambitious plan to give free and compulsory education to all children.
Continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) must be child-centric and not education-centric. In short, it should be holistic. Value education must begin at home from the mother’s lap, she said.
In his presidential address, P C Chacko MP said that parents prefer to educate children in best schools. So it is urgent to raise the standard of the schools by holding meetings of the CBSE, the ICSE and government schools in Kerala.
The problems should be analysed and put in order. It is sad to see schools that were once popular with many students having only a handful of students today.  Teaching must be made a more attractive career so that the best minds with passion for teaching are drawn to it. Usually teaching is the last option and this must change. Salaries must be made more attractive, especially in CBSE schools, Chacko said.
C A Abraham Thomas welcomed the gathering. Kerala CBSE Schools Managements Association general secretary Indira Rajan and association president T P M Ibrahim Khan spoke.
Organising secretary Adarsh Kavungal proposed a vote of thanks.