Pune: An intense debate has broken out over school education minister Deepak Kesarkar 's announcement to align the curriculum of state board schools with the CBSE model from the next academic year. Kesarkar said the move will help students excel in competitive exams but education experts and stakeholders point to the the feasibility of implementing such a change, validity of institutions like Balbharati and SCERT, and the availability of sufficient manpower to handle the state's curriculum effectively, among other issues. Experts said adopting the CBSE curriculum for mathematics and science could be acceptable, but cautioned govt against using it for social studies and language due to inherent regional nuances.
History, geography and language education are region-specific, necessitating the inclusion of their elements. A blanket adoption of the central curriculum may undermine the rich cultural and regional diversity that should be reflected in the educational content, they maintained. Senior education expert Vasant Kalpande said, "Balbharati and SCERT have vacant posts raising questions about manpower to handle the state's curriculum.
Implementing the CBSE curriculum for mathematics and science is acceptable. However, using the CBSE curriculum for social studies could be problematic. The CBSE curriculum follows the NCERT framework, which is largely similar to the state's curriculum.
However, announcing the implementation of the pattern before the state curriculum framework i.