Even as the schools affiliated to ICSE/CBSE boards are opposing the government move to adopt SSC syllabus for class I to V, saying it will lower their standards, the results of recent national talent search (NTS) exam tells a different story.

Of the 285 students in the state who secured NTS scholarships, 259 are SSC board students — that is almost 90 per cent of the total.

What more, only 22 students of CBSE board could manage to get through while from the ICSE board, only 4 got the scholarship.

Commissioner of Maharashtra State Examination Council (MSEC) Ram Ithape had declared the names of Maharashtra students who have received NTS scholarship, recently.

The success of the SSC students in the national level scholarship assumes significance as recently the ICSE and CBSE board schools had expressed strong resistance to adopting SSC syllabus for class I-V saying that it would bring down their “academic standards”.

Asked about the dismal performance of ICSE and CBSE board students in NTS, S N Pandhare of MSEC said one could not point out any specific reason but the trend has been significant over the last decade. “The parents of SSC board students want their wards to appear for competitive exams, which results in higher number of SSC board students appearing for the exams,” he observed.

An employee of an ICSE school said, “It is true that the percentage of ICSE board students excelling in NTS is low. However, very few students appear for the NTS exam, as the ICSE board already has tough syllabus from class VIII and parents do not prefer their children to diverge from school studies. We, however, encourage students to appear for the exam at school level.”

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