20 govt-run Tripura board schools to get affiliated with CBSE

Agartala: The state government has initiated to change the affiliation of 20 out of 32 government-run English medium schools from the Tripura Board of Secondary Education (TBSE) to Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) from the current session itself. The 12 remaining schools would be changed to the central board after a month, said sources.

This decision was taken after finding that the CBSE curriculum is easier and better for students, keeping in mind their higher education prospective, the sources added.

In order to smoothly complete the transformation from TBSE to CBSE, the state education department has arranged summer camps for the students during the upcoming summer vacation, which is scheduled to begin from May 25. The 14-day-long summer camp is likely to begin from the very first day of the vacations.

Students of Class III to VIII will be undergoing the summer camps, as a recent survey conducted by the education department revealed that most of the students of these classes could not properly read a line or even solve a simple mathematical problem.

In the evaluation of students from Class III to VIII under a project named ‘Disha’, also called ‘Baseline Survey’, conducted between February 25 and 28 this year, the education department said that there were 3,20,936 students from these five classes, and among them, 3,16,611 students participated in this evaluation and testing programme with an attendance percentage of 98.83%.

According to the report, 60%, i.e. 51,599 students of Class V, could not read Bengali language book of Class-II, 46% of students could not subtract and 81% students didn’t know how to divide. Likewise, 36% of students, i.e. 54,066 of Class VIII, failed to read Bengali of Class II level and 67% didn’t know how to subtract, while 5,800 students of Class VIII could not recognise ‘11’ in digits.

During the summer camps, students will be taught for three hours on a daily basis, of which the first hour will be for Bengali language. Mathematics would be conducted in the second hour along with other subjects. Later, in the third hour, sports and physical activities would be conducted for students. On the last two days of the summer camp, parents will be informed on the status of their children’s education and accordingly measures will be initiated.

The summer camps would be conducted under the department of elementary education in the respective schools of the students. It is expected that 60% of students will be covered under this special programme.

As per sources, the government will also seek permission from the Election Commission to hold the campaign as the model code of conduct (MCC) would continue till June 6.

Around 40,60,116 textbooks have reached the state, of which 38,39,16 have been distributed among the schools of the state. Only Lab manual book for Class IX and around 10,700 textbooks from the ‘NBT’ for Class V-VI is pending and is likely to be received in some days.