Mumbai: After the CBSE introduced new subjects in its curriculum for grades 9 and 11, for the upcoming academic year, the Board has now come up with a new policy, grade 10 students, could consider the marks of any of the newly-introduced subjects in the ‘Best of 5’ if they are unsatisfied with scores in other subjects. The new policy would come into effect from the 2023-24 academic year.
New skill subjects details
Class 9 and 11 will see commencement of new skill subjects. While students from grade 9 will learn Design Thinking & Innovation, Foundation Skills for Sciences (Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology), and Electronics & Hardware, class 11 students will be taught Design Thinking & Innovation, Physical Activity Trainer, Land Transportation Associate, and Electronics & Hardware.
“The objective of the new policy is to help students seeking admissions into junior colleges across the nation,” said a board official. He added that at least one language needs to be counted in ‘Best of 5’ and other subjects like Maths and Science, one can be replaced with one of the newly introduced subjects.
“Sometimes I tend to make silly mistakes in Maths that affect the score. Now, with the new policy, I would be less worried about silly mistakes,” said Rudra Parikh, a grade 9 student of The Somaiya School, Vidyavihar, Mumbai.
Mumbai students says they're relieved
Some Mumbai students believe that the policy would do good for them and aid them in getting admission to their preferred colleges. Students have expressed happiness saying they wouldn’t have to only focus on Maths and Science to get a good aggregate of their ‘Best of 5’ marks.
Rubeena, a class 9 student of Navi Mumbai’s Tilak Global School, said, the policy has both pros and cons. “We should not take it for granted by focusing on important subjects like Science and Maths and hope that the new subject would save our overall percentage.” .
Neelam Ajgaonkar, Principal, of Mumbai Public School, Hariyali Village (CBSE), said the policy would help reduce the dropout rates of CBSE schools. She said, “Not every student scores well in Maths and Science. Hence, this policy would help them study further without any hurdles.”
"In my opinion, CBSE is trying to do what other boards like ICSE and the Cambridge boards do. It is trying to offer more options to students," said Francis Joseph, School Leaders Network.
The educationist further added that skill development as a subject has to be mainstream as just providing knowledge doesn't matter if there are no skills taught.
