CBSE's new course on health care

New Delhi: Class XII pass-outs will soon be able take up jobs in the fast expanding health care sector as the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has decided to introduce a vocational course on general health care at the senior secondary level.

"The course, to be launched in collaboration with FICCI, will train students in managing patients and extending assistance to doctors and health professionals," Shashi Bhushan, Head of Department (EDUSAT) at the CBSE, told media.

Students will also be introduced to the fundamentals of health care as part of the course, he said. Those clearing the course can opt for ward service in various hospitals and health care centres, and also attend to patients at the reception. "We have discussed with FICCI, which will take the help of the Academy of Hospital Administration to providing the training. FICCI will explore the employment opportunities for students passing out from the course," he said.

Mr. Bhushan said the course, to be introduced as an elective, will have three papers.

"But the course curriculum and syllabus are yet to be prepared. It will take some time for the course to take a concrete shape," he said. There is tremendous employment scope for these students as the health sector is rapidly growing, he said. Presently the Class X pass-outs, who are not trained in this areas, are doing this job, Mr. Bhushan said.

CBSE schools cannot treat its Class X students as fresh candidates

CHENNAI: The Centre has informed the Madras High Court that Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) schools would be violating rules if they treated their own Class X students as fresh candidates for admission to XI, and issued transfer certificates before "re-admitting" them to Class XI.

When a public interest litigation petition, highlighting the practice of "weeding out" students at Class X level to achieve better results in Plus Two, came up for further hearing before the First Bench on Thursday, Assistant Solicitor-General of India P. Wilson submitted: "Admission of a student from Class X to Class XI within the same school should not be treated as a fresh admission, but only as a continuation of the original admission done in that school. So, issuing transfer certificate to Class X students within the same school and re-admitting them to Class XI is against the rules."

He informed the Bench, comprising Chief Justice A.P. Shah and Justice Chitra Venkataraman, that schools should conduct no admission tests for their own students.
Making it clear that students of the same school should be accommodated in Class XI as far as possible, Mr. Wilson said, "students from other schools may be considered for admission after accommodating the students of their own school... After admitting their own students, if there are still vacancies, they may be filled either on the basis of the Class X Board examinations or by conducting an admission test for students from other schools."

The Assistant Solicitor-General said that the Centre had instructed that no school should prescribe cut-off marks for admission to Class XI or for allotment of subjects.
The schools should display the number of vacancies, number of seats for their own students and vacancies for outside candidates in a transparent manner.

The admission procedure, including the list of candidates who had applied, merit list if any, list of selected candidates, and criteria followed for admission too should be displayed.

He also submitted that there was strong academic reason to make provisional admission of students in Class XI before the commencement of the new academic year, as it would enable schools to utilise the entire month of April and first part of May for instruction.

The public interest litigation petition filed by convener of Concerned Citizen's Committee S. Anandalakshmy contended that several CBSE schools were following an "extremely harmful and damaging" practice of arbitrarily fixing cut-off marks to weed out Class X students of their own schools, and deny them admission to Class XI. "These practices are the manifestation of rampant commercialisation of education, and are an anti-thesis of what the CBSE proclaims and repeatedly emphasises. The continuation of such practices is unhealthy," she said.
The Bench has posted the matter for orders.

 

CBSE defers test in Bengal

CALCUTTA : The CBSE examination scheduled for March 16 has been postponed to April 7 in Bengal.

M.C. Sharma, CBSE controller of examinations, said from Delhi on March 15 that the Class X English paper would be held as scheduled in the rest of the country. The date has been changed only for Bengal, on the request of principals of Calcutta schools, who were worried about holding the test on a bandh.

“We are relieved that the exam has been postponed,” said Mukta Nain, principal, Birla High School for Boys. Nearly 450 students from the school are writing the test.

On March 14, the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education and the ICSE-ISC council had decided to put off their exams scheduled for March 16, but the CBSE had not. On March 15 morning, the board sent a fax to schools in Bengal, informing them of the deferment.

But CBSE and ICSE-ISC students in Bengal are worried because now there will have to be two sets of question papers — one for the state and another for the rest of the country — which they think is “unfair”. The students feel the exam should have been postponed everywhere.

“There are certain chapters that are important for this year’s exam. We wonder how best the council will be able to do justice to us, as the question paper for all the other states will have to be different from that for Bengal,” said Sanjukta Guha, a student of a south Calcutta school.

But Gerry Arathoon, chief executive and secretary, Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations, said it was not possible to put off the ICSE-ISC examinations in all the states.

“We will ensure that the students are not affected. They need not worry, because parity will be maintained between the two sets of question papers,” he said.