State Board Syllabus is Far Easier than the Central Board Syllabus

Via The Times of India

So it’s been decided that CBSE and state board schools will have a common Math and Science curriculum. Public school students have welcomed the decision, saying it will help them compete with students from central boards in a better way.

But what have state board students been learning so far? TOI did a simple comparative study of the Class IX mathematics textbooks of CBSE and state syllabus to find out. It should be noted that the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) prescribes the curriculum, and CBSE schools individually decide which textbook to use.

For the study, TOI used a CBSE textbook published by NCERT and Mathematics revised edition, by the Karnataka Textbook Society 2009.

A glance at the table of contents revealed the obvious — the state syllabus is far easier than CBSE’s.

Problem solving

In the former, a regular Class IX student first begins with square roots while his central counterpart begins with irrational numbers. Both syllabi have ample problem examples followed by a stepby-step solution to them. However, at the end of each chapter, CBSE had very few unsolved problems for students to tackle. The state syllabus had a few more problems.

Visual approach

CBSE relies heavily on visuals as it uses a lot of diagrams to relay concepts and problem solving. This was sorely lacking in the state textbook.

As you delve deeper into the subject, CBSE introduces students to interesting chapters of polynomials, coordinate geometry, linear equations in two variables, Euclid’s geometry, Heron’s Formula, Quadrilaterals, statistics and probability among others.

Lagging behind

For the state syllabus, after students are grilled in the number system, they are taught a chapter called ‘Mathematics in Daily Life’. A rather interesting topic which includes banking, compound interest, stocks and shares, hire purchase and instalment buying and partnership. All very well, except central students do these at lower levels.

Like CBSE, the state boards also learn statistics, linear equations, circles, parallelograms and surface areas and volumes.

Quality control

According to educationist Krishna Iyer, comparatively, the state board dilutes the quality of the curriculum. “Ideally the state board takes the NCERT curricula, and then ascertains student capabilities and teacher competency. Based on these factors, it will frame its own curriculum,’’ he said.

A student in a state syllabus school is mandatorily promoted from Class I to VI. Till then, only student attendance is compulsory for passing. “However, the danger in that is that students start taking it easy. In most schools only 50% show interest in Math and Science. So they seldom pay attention in class. But if they don’t get their fundamentals right at the primary level, they will find it difficult at the secondary and high-school level,’’ added Iyer.

Meanwhile, the central board already knows what to do and frames the course curriculum accordingly. “It is more systematic,’’ he said.