The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is swiftly picking up popularity across India as new figures reveal that CBSE board schools have increased to 15,000 from just 4,843 in 1996-97. In 2001-02, there were 6,293 affiliated schools, which increased to 13,898 in March 2012-13.
Majority of this growth has come from independent private schools, the number, which elevated from 3,483 in 2001-02 to 10,290 at the end of 2013.
CBSE officials believe that board’s student-school friendly academic and administrative reforms are the reason for its increasing popularity.
The CBSE is a national board that provides flexibility to parents as well as students to move anywhere in the country. School Principals are of the opinion that the popularity of CBSE is due to the its syllabus that syncs with the competitive entrance exams for professional courses.
According to a CBSE administrative officer, 98 percent of the schools, who apply for CBSE affiliation are new schools. New Delhi is leading with the highest number of CBSE schools, followed by Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Kerala.
Maharashtra has now over 500 CBSE board schools, which is an increase of 67 percent in last three years. CBSE officials added that students are drawn towards the board also because of the implementation of the continuous comprehensive evaluation (CCE) system. Apart from the presence of the modern curricula, CBSE board is making efforts to make learning stress-free. For this, CBSE has issued guidelines for teachers to constructively address the misbehaviour in class.
