State education ministers on Saturday endorsed the Centre’s move to have a core curriculum in science and mathematics for Class XI and XII.
The Council of School Board of Education, a body under the Human Resources Development Ministry, has already prepared the core curriculum in these subjects.
The state boards can frame their syllabus on the basis of the curriculum.
“The ministers endorsed the core curriculum prepared by the Council. They also endorsed the idea of having a core curriculum in commerce,” HRD Minister Kapil Sibal said.
The core curriculum will bring uniformity in the course content in all school boards, giving a level-playing field to students from urban and rural areas, Sibal said. It will be helpful in holding a common entrance test for admission into the universities.
Courses under apex body
Meanwhile, the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) on Saturday approved a proposal to bring in medical , agriculture and legal education under the proposed overarching education body.
The board, which also has state education ministers as its members, supported the idea to bring medical, agriculture and legal education under the ambit of the National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER), Sibal said after the CABE meeting here. The move would help the apex body to plan a cohesive policy in higher education, the minister said.
The issue of bringing medical education under the NCHER has already evoked sharp protest from the Health Ministry, which is overseeing it now. Agriculture, on the other hand, is a state subject and thus approval of the states will be necessary.
Even the Bar Council of India has not favoured legal education to be part of the NCHER.
According to the draft bill, the body will be the apex institution in higher education and will replace existing regulatory bodies like the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the Distance Education Council (DEC).