When admission time is close we do a lot of searches and enquiries about the schools and its syllabus. Each board in the country have their advantages and benefits but parents have to choose one based on what their child needs. It is important to not just focus on one board but one should be open-minded other boards prevalent in our country. In this way, the information dissemination also becomes way easier and they will be able to form good comparative scales to evaluate their decision. Let us take a look at what the CBSE and NIOS boards have got to offer and get the best out of them.
Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE)
This national level board of education is controlled and managed by the Union Government of India. It has under its umbrella several public and private schools registered under it. More than 19000 schools in India and about 211 schools in 25 foreign countries are affiliated to CBSE. CBSE advocates developing holistic students through their school-based evaluation. Their integrated curriculum and innovations in teaching methodologies have gone a long way in enriching the overall student experience. CBSE emphasises on skill-based learning where the focal point of the entire scheme of things is on skill development. The emphasis on content is not much because learning and understanding are important here. It helps in student make use of the content in the right manner as the content is omnipresent.
The students of 11th and 12th grade in CBSE get the choice to choose their subjects and in different combinations. They can even choose science while pursuing economics and commerce. The board is student-oriented and has the grading system which has relaxed and made the evaluation fairer and more advanced. Life skills and value education is the core of the syllabus is changing along with the changing times and giving more choices to students to do well. The board is hugely acceptable around the world and suitable especially for students who want to go for National level exams like IIT and AIPMT. The school drills in every child the demands of these exams and caters them accordingly. With the introduction of various tools like Saransh, CBSE surely has upped its game if all the schools also co-operated.
National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS)
The NIOS is vested with the responsibility of administering secondary and senior secondary examinations of open schools. It is the third-largest board after CBSE and ICSE. The ulterior motive of the board is to spread education in rural areas and improve the literacy rates in the country. Different levels are used for different classes and a glimpse of it is provided below.
| OBE LEVEL A | EQUAL TO CLASS 3 |
| OBE LEVEL B | EQUAL TO CLASS 5 |
| OBE LEVEL C | EQUAL TO CLASS 8 |
| SECONDARY COURSE | EQUAL TO CLASS 10th |
| SENIOR SECONDARY COURSE | EQUAL TO CLASS 12th |
The exams are conducted two times in a year but the students also can appear through the on-demand examination at the secondary and senior secondary level. The NIOS with 2.2 million admissions is the world's largest open schooling system. NIOS does not give you the schooling environment which will not expose you to classmates and team-building skills. Lack of competition also is a major impediment. But one major benefit of it is that it allows you to take examinations as per the level of preparation. Other than the improvement exams, if any candidate cannot under current circumstances give his 12th then NIOS gives the option of online education. The results for the exam also are announced in the very next month which is very quick. The chances of malpractice and leak also become minimal because every individual gets a different paper.
Hence if your child is interested in attempting the national level exams then CBSE is a better option and if by any chance attending school is an issue, then NIOS is the way out. Choose smartly.
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