Dubai: Students of schools in the UAE will not be impacted by the recent decisions by the Central Board of Secondary Education in India regarding vocational subjects in Grades 10 and 12, educators have said.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will discontinue seven academic electives and 34 vocational courses from the upcoming academic year. The board has cited low enrolment by students as the reason for dropping the 41 subjects.
However, students who opted for these subjects in Class 11 will be allowed to pursue them this year, and appear for board examinations too.
Ashok Kumar, CEO of The Indian High School, Dubai, said IHS is one of the very few schools in the UAE that offer additional vocational subjects in Grade 12.
“Our students are not impacted as we offer the two vocational courses of Marketing and Salesmanship which have been retained by the board. These two subjects are very valuable accompaniments for students in the commerce stream and they are also offered in the humanities group to give flexibility to students at this crucial stage of their lives,” he told Gulf News.
Kumar said the philosophy of the CBSE in introducing vocational courses in the curriculum of the senior secondary level was in fact very progressive.
“The intent was to make students work-place ready and give them the basic skills for earning a livelihood even if academics was not their cup of tea. Till now, there were more than 60 vocational courses so that there could be something for everyone.
“However, over the years it has become evident that the mindset of the Indian parents is such that they prefer to go for the conventional careers like medicine, engineering and the corporate world and this impacted the enrolment levels in some progressive but unconventional ‘academic electives’ as well as ‘vocational courses’,” he pointed out.
Grade 10 assessment
The Board has also re-modelled its assessment scheme for Grade 10 board examinations for schools offering vocational subjects as compulsory subjects under the National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF).
As per the new assessment pattern, students in these schools have to compulsorily study an additional vocational subject apart from the five subjects — two languages and three elective subjects — mathematics, science and social science.
The Board has now given the provision for computing the final marks in such a way that if any student fails in any of the elective subjects, the mark for the vocational subject can be considered for that. Students also have the option to reappear for a failed subject in the compartment examination.
However, educators here said there is hardly any school in the UAE that offers vocational subjects as compulsory subjects under NSQF for Grade 10 and hence the decision will not affect the students here.
