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| Students of St Mary’s Maligaon celebrate their good performance |
June 15: St Mary’s English High School, Maligaon, which secured two positions in the top 10 in the HSLC results declared today, bade farewell to Seba.
The school has switched over to CBSE board this year.
Principal Lissy Rose said this was the last batch, which appeared for the HSLC examination under the state board.
“The parents have been demanding for the last four or five years to switch over to CBSE. They feel that CBSE is better and more convenient for a student to appear in a national-level examination,” said Rose.
First rank holder Bhaswati Deka and 10th rank holder Himakshi Boro are from the school.
Bhaswati has already taken admission at Lal Bahadur Shastri School in New Delhi, which is affiliated to the CBSE.
She said from New Delhi there were many inconveniences under Seba.
“For example, this time our result was declared late which created problem for me in taking admission here. Besides, the CBSE board is more helpful in preparing for competitive examinations,” Bhaswati said.
The school’s decision indicated how the state board is losing its popularity over the years.
The city’s another school, Don Bosco School in Panbazar, switched over to CBSE in 2006.
Regional officer of CBSE’s Northeast region K.K. Choudhury said around 15 city schools switched over to CBSE from the state board since 2001. “It is not possible for the regional office to tell the exact number of schools which have applied for CBSE affiliation as it is done online and the process is directly monitored by the CBSE’s central office,” he said.
Dhanadev Mahanta, who worked several years as Seba secretary, said there were several reasons for schools to migrate from the state board to CBSE.
“Introduction of mother tongue as a compulsory subject in Seba-affiliated schools from 2004 is one of the reasons. Had the mother tongue been made compulsory for all schools in Assam irrespective of Seba or CBSE then it would have been a different matter,” Mahanta said.
Examiners in Assam still have the traditional mindset of not being liberal in giving marks in this subject, he added.
“Besides, it is true that students get more marks under CBSE than Seba. But, when it comes to competitive examinations our students don’t perform too badly,” said Mahanta.
From their six years of experience after switching over to CBSE from state board, Don Bosco School principal J.M. Thelekkatt said the move was “positive”.
“We have found that the CBSE syllabus is more relevant to the needs of the students. The syllabus is constantly revised and it takes more care in evaluation,” said Thelekkatt.
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