Half-baked cake of the MIEB

Education Dept is in the process of framing curriculum for the board to match global standards for grades I to IV; why the hurry to grant more affiliations?

| DECEMBER 27, 2018, 03:51 AM IST

With an aim to provide quality education, the State of Maharashtra on Tuesday officially launched the Maharashtra International Education Board (MIEB) in presence of its Hon CM, its Education Minister and the Union Minister of HRD. The MIEB is formed with intent to have the autonomy on par with international standards to take every decision related to establishing and running international schools.  

The MIEB is contemplated to be an autonomous body aiming at raising the standards of state-provided education to an international level. Maharashtra already has international boards such as International Baccalaureate (IB) headquartered at Geneva, and the Indian General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) run from Cambridge, UK along with its own State Education Board. It is thus for the first time that this State will have its own international board and unlike other international boards, the MIEB will have international schools in languages such as Hindi, Marathi, Urdu, Gujarati, Telegu, Kannada and Tamil. This new board carries the authority to affiliate schools from other states along with other international schools and under the new framework of MIEB, and will impart primary, secondary and higher secondary education to benefit students who can’t afford international-level education at private schools.

Ironically, this Board was already rolled out and currently there are 13 Zilla Parishad (ZP) pilot schools in the State operate under the same scheme. The scheme of MIEB was originally announced in October 2016 and the government had planned to select only 100 schools run by tribal development, social justice and school education departments to be affiliated under it. In November 2017 the set of parameters based on which the selections of schools were announced. Subsequently from the ongoing academic year 2018-19, 13 ZP schools are being run under this scheme on a pilot basis.  

The affiliation was been granted for above 13 schools in the ongoing academic year by renaming them as ‘Ojas’. MIB curriculum was developed and delivered for pre-primary and class I to class III. Around 70 teachers underwent a 22 day intensive training for this purpose and additional teachers have been recruited in these schools.     

From the beginning of 2021 to March 2022, all international schools under MIEB are expected to prepare their students for international competitive examinations like Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and Programme in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS).  

Seven committees have already been set up for various tasks like framing the syllabus, project management, and training and development. The 11 member State Committee has been appointed headed by the State Minister for Education comprising of Director and some renowned namess. This Board will monitor schools from nursery levels (four-eight age group) to Class XII (16-18 age group) and it is expected that as the Board gains credence, the private schools within and outside the State will seek its affiliation.

For the next academic year the State has called for applications to hand out 100 more affiliations comprising of 50 government schools, 25 government-aided schools and 25 self-financed schools. The Maximum applications (around 431) were received from Mumbai, 323 from Pune district alone but only 34 schools desired to apply for affiliation from Goa’s neighbouring Sindhudurg district. The final list is scheduled to be declared by 15th Feb 2019 out of the 4727 odd schools which applied to seek affiliation.

To the author, the entire exercise seems to have been done in a hurry without any concrete thought process. If it is only the autonomy that was desired in the existing system it is not understood why only the few schools be allowed to enjoy the benefit. The government also seems to have failed to understand that it is more important that student enhances it’s learning through a practical approach and not from the type of board he/she studies. Further, since all the little new recruitments made for the new project are on ‘contract’ basis the question remains, as to how a breed of ill-paid and non-motivated teachers expected to deliver international teaching quality.  

Even when the new Board is planning for an expansion, the curriculum is still a work in progress. It is learnt that the education department is currently in the process of framing a curriculum for the board to match international standards for St I to IV. Why the hurry to grant more affiliations? The State has sanctioned Rs 10 crore each year for the next 10 years and the schools are expected to financial stable till then. This means that for the next 10 years, the 113 schools will get a maximum outlay Rs 8,84,955 per year if the number of such schools remain same.  

If it is believed that an additional sum of Rs. 73,726 per month for 113 schools in next ten years with contract-basis teachers could turn ZP schools with vernacular medium into schools with International standards, the optimism of the present government needs to be saluted. It is always far better said than done. Will the half baked cake taste that good?

Share this