Tuesday 14 March 2017

CBSE International discontinued in Indian schools in Qatar

Qatar Indian schools have informed their decision to discontinue the CBSE International Curriculum to the parents. The students from CBSE (i) will be merged into the National Curriculum (CBSE) starting from the next academic session in April 2017.

Birla Public School has informed the parents that in compliance with the instructions of the CBSE Delhi to discontinue the International Curriculum, the school is constrained to discontinue it from the Academic Year 2017 – ‘18. Accordingly, the International Curriculum in the school will be merged in the National Curriculum with effect from April 2017. The merging will be inclusive of International section of the Kindergarten school as well.

Parents of students in CBSE (i) were apprehensive since the discontinuing of the stream was announced in February. One of the main worry was that there was no clear communication from the school regarding the future of these students.

"There was a petition forwarded to the CBSE authorities to withdraw their decision of discontinuing the international stream. The school authorities were hoping that the international stream would be reinstated," said one of the worried parents.

The teaching method and text books are very different between the two streams and parents with students in higher classes are worried that the children will have a lot of adjustments to do to catch up with the CBSE stream.

Meanwhile another prominent Indian school with many children in International curriculum has informed the students that the school will change their curriculum to that of National curriculum starting April 2017. The students have been assured that they will continue in separate classes to ensure smooth transition from International curriculum to National.


DMIS issued a circular annoucing the merger and assuring parents and students of support to ensure trouble free transition. The school in the circular said that the teachers will continue to approach topics in similar way to the students in CBSEi as they were done earlier. "...we assure that the students adaptation needs will be fully taken care of by the school," the notice read.

The school also assured the students studying in grade IX CBSEi that a brief bridge course will be arrange as extended study option to cover knowledge gaps if any. (Though the notice immediately mentioned that there in no difference in content but only in its discourse.)  The school also informed parents that as this decision was announced only a few weeks back, there could be delay in receiving the textbooks for these students and for them the school will issue photocopies of the same till the books arrive.  

Another concern voiced by the parents is about the fees. The international stream fee is much more than the CBSE stream. Now that all students will be part of the same curriculum, the schools are expected to reimburse or adjust the extra amount with future payments as many parents have already paid the term or annual fees in advance for the next academic year.

Over 2,000 parents from Qatar, Oman and UAE had signed an online petition requesting CBSE to roll back their decision and to constitute a task force to improve the curriculum.

Birla Public School, Shantiniketan Indian School, Doha Modern Indian School, MES Indian School are some of the Indian schools in Qatar offering CBSE i along with the national CBSE curriculum.

(Source: The Peninsula)

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