Mumbai: The state government, which has already announced its plan to introduce an international level curriculum in zilla parishads and other local self-government bodies, has now set up an advisory committee for this.
It has also offered relief to 81 schools that were running the curriculum started by the International Board set up by the Maharashtra government. Additional chief secretary of school education Vandana Krishna issued this government resolution.
During the Devendra Fadnavis regime, the state government had set up its own International Board, as schools in the state were slowly switching to an international level curriculum.
81 schools in the state registered itself for this new curriculum of state’s own International Board. However, the new school education minister Varsha Gaikwad scrapped this board. This decision has put a question mark on the future of students studying in those 81 schools.
The state has formed a separate committee to prepare a curriculum for the students studying in Standard 1 to Standard 5 in these 81 schools. This committee will be headed by the director of School Education and Research Training Institute. Advisory committee Zilla parishads and local self-government bodies run 66,033 schools in the state.
The state government has decided to upgrade all these schools with the new international curriculum in a phased manner. It has formed a 24-member International Curriculum advisory committee with the school education minister as its vice president.
Sukhdev Thorat, former chairman of University Grants Commission, Vijay Bhatkar, senior scientist (who developed India’s first super computer Param), Jaising Pawar, an eminent historian, Madhav Chavan, well known social worker in the field of education, Dr Zaheer Quazi, president of Anjuman -E-Islam and the president of Balbharati (the state government’s text book production board) as well as the representatives of CBSE, CISE, and Cambridge boards will work as members on this committee. This committee will advise to draft the new curriculum in the light of the New Educational Policy expected to be released soon.
