CABE likely to give CBSE more teeth

The National Textbook Council Bill has been on the waiting list for a long time and could face difficulties. Aimed at desaffronisation of education to keep an eye on the school textbooks being churned from schools outside the government system,including those run by religious and social organisations like the RSS the NTC is envisaged as a body to ensure that a standard of education could be maintained and student community could be saved from ill effect of inferior quality textbooks.

While the proposed Bill had got a push when Lok Janshakti Chief Ram Vilas Paswan wrote a letter to HRD minister Arjun Singh in late 2008,soon after the Malegaon arrests,claiming that RSS run schools were fabricating and distorting history and their textbooks need to come under a regulatory mechanism,things have not moved much since then.

Several states like Gujarat,Punjab and West Bengal among others rejected the move while some others have not bothered to reply to the HRD ministrys note asking them to respond to the proposed legislation. The ministry,however,is hoping to bring the bill to CABE yet again,to build a consensus.

NTC apart,the ministry is looking to push a CBSE Act to make CBSE a statutory body in the wake of reports of several fake school boards mushrooming with names similar to CBSE. This obviously misleads parents and teachers into thinking that the boards may have something to do with CBSE. Also,in light of the fact that CBSE has recently been launched as an international board,a need is being felt to give it better legal backing.

Apart from this,there are several cases when state governments resist allowing schools in their state to shift to CBSE rather than state education boards. Since CBSE is registered under the Societies Act and state education boards are largely established through legislations,the latter will always have the upper hand. With central legislation backing it,CBSE will naturally acquire precedence as well as prominence,said a source.

Developing a framework for vocational education curriculum,expanding the reach of the recently launched sanitation drive to schools across states and pushing for a Common Curriculum in Science and Mathematics across school boards are other proposals on the table.