CBSE students of government schools stare at bleak future

Ongole : Some of the revolutionary reforms in the education department started by the previous government began to backfire in the state. The forcible registration of students with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is proving wrong, as the students who studied in the state syllabus up to Class VIII, are struggling to meet the standards of the Central syllabus. The teachers and parents are worried about the future of their wards, as most of them are expected to fail the final exams in March 2025. They are demanding the government to act now and take remedial measures to save the future of nearly one lakh students.

The Government of Andhra Pradesh introduced the CBSE syllabus in 1,000 government schools in the 2023-24 academic year. As the CBSE norms do not allow direct admission into Class X, the government registered the students up to Class IX in these 1,000 schools numbering around 4.50 lakh, with the CBSE board, by paying a registration fee of around Rs 300 per student. These students are being taught lessons from the CBSE textbooks in the English medium. Following the norms of the CBSE, the students are allowed to take their native language as their second language, most of them have chosen Telugu, Urdu or Tamil.

Most of the students in these schools are from poor families and their parents do not have the time and patience to monitor their studies. So, more than half of the students have no skills to read and write perfectly, but the teachers are trying their best to educate them. The students in the government schools registered with the CBSE have written their year-end exams as per the question papers set by the central board and more than half of them failed to achieve at least 30 per cent of the marks. The teachers are now worried as the Class IX students who registered with the CBSE board last year have to attend the board exams for Class X this year.

Requesting anonymity, a headmaster of the government CBSE school in Prakasam district said that the government took a hasty decision to prove itself as the government with a vision to change the lives of the poor students. He said that the decision was implemented immediately, without obtaining consent from the parents or the students and not appointing the required staff in the schools.

He said that in the Class X students in his school, only five per cent of them are ready to study the CBSE syllabus and more than 60 per cent could not get at least 30 per cent of total marks. He said that the students who usually leave his school after Class X go for ITI or polytechnic, or do a degree or engineering course. But these students who are being forced to write CBSE exams would fail and leave their studies abruptly. He said that as the students are not studying Hindi in Class X, they may lose the chance to appear for certain Central government job recruitment.

N Vijayalakshmi, mother of a Class X student, said that they didn’t know that their son was studying the CBSE syllabus until recently. She said that the mothers of students in other schools told her that the CBSE syllabus is tough compared to the state syllabus, and she believes that her son, an average performer, would fail in the public exams. She is now trying to take TC for her son and join him in a school with the state syllabus for Class X.

A teacher in a government school with the CBSE syllabus in Chittoor district said that there are 20 per cent internal marks for the students. Though they are generous and gave 18 marks for the 20 marks in internals, the students are not able to get the 40 marks in subjects like Social Sciences and English.

Those students who could get a seat in the IIITs with state syllabus in Telugu medium are just able to pass the CBSE syllabus in English medium, she said. She said that about one lakh students who attend Class X public exams in the CBSE syllabus would fail every year, for the next two years. By then, the students who were registered with the CBSE board in 2023-24 would be accustomed to the standards and would score more than 60 per cent marks in 2026-27, and so on.

The teachers in the government CBSE schools are demanding the government to provide enough staff in schools and train them first.