Do CBSE X students prefer to continue in same board?

Nagpur: Over the last few years, more and more CBSE Std X students are preferring to continue in the same board rather than shifting to HSC, feel academics. While there is no official data available to back up these claims, CBSE schools in city are witnessing an increase in Std XI enrolments.
Rupali Dey, principal of Modern School (Koradi), said one of the reasons for this preference is the curriculum. “The major competitive exams like JEE and NEET follow NCERT curriculum, which is basically what CBSE has. So this gives students an academic advantage if they continue with CBSE,” said Dey.
Around 3,300 CBSE Std X students applied for admissions to state board junior colleges both this and last year. How many CBSE Std X students are enrolled in the district is only something which can be estimated, as the central board does not provide any official statistics. So the number of CBSE Std X students passing out from district is said to be as high as 15,000 and as low as 8,000.
Even if an average of 10,000 is considered, then just over 30% of their students are now shifting to the state board.
Ashok Gavhankar, general secretary of Vidarbha Junior College Teachers Association (VJUCTA), said, “There were some state board junior colleges who have entered into tie-ups with coaching institutes. These tie-ups drove admissions away from CBSE schools.”
The word ‘tie-up’ basically means that a coaching institute and a junior college reach an informal, unwritten agreement. Coaching class’s responsibility is to get all of its students admitted to this particular junior college. The latter in turn has to mark proxy attendance of all such students. Students spend their entire day at the coaching institute and prepare not only for the competitive exams but also the boards. It’s a win-win situation for colleges as they get full fees, heavy enrolment, no headache of hiring high quality teachers, and even the possibility of having a topper from their college.
Now, the tie-up trend is pretty common in CBSE schools too. A coaching institute owner said, “I have a small institute so there’s no tie-up, but all the major ones have entered into such arrangements with CBSE schools. With this arrangement in place, there is no need for students to shift to state board,” said the institute owner, who did not wish to be identified.
He added that in the next few years, the number of CBSE students shifting to state board will fall drastically. “Nobody wants to shift out of their comfort zone and this will be visible very soon,” said the owner.
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