100 Maharashtra run schools to adopt international curriculum

Mumbai: The state government is all set to take its 100 schools to “international level” from February 2018 initially for primary level. These schools will be guided by the international cell in the education department and State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT), now called as Maharashtra Vidya Pradhikaran. The aim is to bring the 100 state board schools at par with the international standards curriculum-wise with the help of the tribal development and social justice department. 

The government resolution (GR) issued on Thursday mentioned details about the first phase of the project. Out of 100 schools, ten schools across the state will be selected for ‘Ojas’ which will be model institutions that will train the remaining 90 schools that will be called ‘Tejas’. In the end, all the schools will appear for international level assessments by March 2021. 

While the model schools will be from Konkan, Pune, Aurangabad, Nashik, Amravati and Nagpur, the ‘Tejas’ schools will from other parts of the state including Mumbai. Konkan and Mumbai will have nine and 18 schools respectively. The GR states that since Pune and Mumbai already have schools of good quality, the focus will be on other regions. 

“The aim of introducing international curriculum is to give the students a new approach that will provide creative and critical thinking and better communication skills. It will be more research-oriented that will boost the thinking capacity of the students and let them widen their skills,” said an official of the education department. 

From February 2018 along with Secondary School Certificate (SSC), these 100 schools will have SSC-International curriculum for which the preparation will begin from this month. The selection of the schools will be on the basis of the school infrastructure and facilities like internet or technology and transport for the students. The state will also include schools from every municipal corporation in the state. From the beginning of 2021 to March 2022, the 100 schools will prepare for International competitive examinations like Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and Programme in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS).