Students soon can opt for subjects from multiple disciplines together

Updated on: Monday, June 28, 2010

Can a student opt for subjects like Physics, Economics and Sanskrit together at Class-XII or under-graduation level?

Such multi-disciplinary subject combinations, which have been denied to students in most of the state boards and universities, could be a reality soon.

The HRD Ministry wants to give students the flexibility of having multi-disciplinary subjects from streams of Science, Arts and Commerce together at Class-XI, XII and graduation.

The move has been initiated by HRD Minister Kapil Sibal who has been insisting on making education more student centric and promoting creativity.

The ministry has set up a ten-member panel, headed by S. C. Khuntia, Joint Secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy, to suggest on allowing flexibility in subject combinations to students at senior secondary and graduation level.

CBSE Chairman Vineet Joshi is the member convener of the committee which will submit its report by September this year, a senior CBSE official told PTI.

The matter was discussed at a meeting of vice chancellors and school principals held here on January 27 this year.

At present, students are able to study subjects of science, commerce and social science together at Class-XII level in certain boards like CBSE and ICSE. However, such combination is not allowed by the state boards.

Similarly, universities mainly allow students to either prefer Science, Commerce or Arts streams at graduation level. Students are not able to pursue multi-disciplinary subjects together.

The committee will also suggest mechanisms for comparing results of students under different boards.

This step assumes significance as experts feel there is huge discrepancy in the evaluation and examination systems of different boards, the official said.

There are allegations that competency level of students securing same percentage of marks in different states is not necessarily equal.

The committee will study the evaluation and examination systems of different boards and suggest mechanisms for inter-board comparability of results.

Introduction of core curriculum at Class-XI and XII and national level entrance test for under-graduate programmes will be among the other issues before the committee.

Introduction of grading system and Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluations at Class-XII will also be looked into by the committee.

Other members of the committee are Joint Director - NCERT, Secretary General-Council of Boards of School Education in India, Vice Chairman-UGC, Director-IIT Kanpur, Chairperson - Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board, Principal Secretary (School Education)-West Bengal government, S. Sathyam - former secretary to Government of India and H. S. Srivastava - former HoD, NCERT.

Students soon can opt for subjects from multiple disciplines together

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