The national child rights protection agency has asked the ICSE council to “revoke” its syllabus for classes I to VIII and switch to the curriculum prepared by the national or state education councils that are perceived to be less taxing on students.
The syllabus prescribed by the Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) is heavier than the syllabus prescribed under the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) of 2005 and has not been endorsed by the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) or State Commission for Educational Research and Training (SCERT), the child rights protection agency’s order says.
According to the order, the CISCE has not complied with the Centre’s Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, by following its own syllabus because the legislation makes it mandatory for all education boards to follow a syllabus that is prescribed by NCERT or the SCERT.
“…..The CISCE curriculum is much more at the pre-primary, primary and upper primary level than prescribed under NCF, 2005. … In no circumstances, NCERT endorses the curriculum developed by CISCE for their own…,” the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) order says.
“As you may be aware, the NCPCR is a statutory body formed under CPCR Act, 2005, to ensure that children enjoy their rights and look into matters related to children from child rights perspective,” the order says.
Gerry Arathoon, CISCE secretary and chief executive, told the Metro that the NCPCR order has reached the council office. But he said he was yet to examine the order as he was out of Delhi. The council would send the reply to the commission on his return to the capital, he said.
The NCPCR has asked the CISCE to “revoke” its existing curriculum for classes I to VIII immediately and a compliance report will have to be sent to the commission within 15 days of the receipt of the order.
The CISCE official, however, said that the council had already informed the NCPCR before that its syllabus for classes I to VIII had been prepared in consultation with experts from the NCERT.
Section 29 of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, states that the “curriculum and the evaluation procedure for elementary education shall be laid down by an academic authority to be specified by the appropriate Government by notification…”
The NCERT or the SCERT is the “academic authority” for prescribing school syllabus, an NCPCR official on said. The decision to ask the CISCE to “revoke” the syllabus has been taken after a detailed examination of the CISCE curriculum, Priyank Kanoongo, NCPCR chairperson said.
“An inquiry was held to examine the CISCE syllabus for classes I to VIII. The inquiry was held for 18 months. The commission took the decision on revoking the CISCE syllabus after examining the syllabus thoroughly,” Kanoongo told Metro from Delhi.
The CISCE had made it mandatory for all its affiliated schools to follow prescribed syllabus from nursery till Class VIII from 2018. In the previous system, the curriculum recommended by the council was uniformly mandatory only from Class IX.
Till 2017, the curriculum followed in all ICSE schools up to Class VIII was prepared by the Inter-State Board for Anglo-Indian Education under the guidance of the NCERT.
The NCPCR has also asked the state governments to take necessary action regarding revoking the CISCE curriculum in the ICSE schools located in their states.
