Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development Satya Pal Singh said that CBSE has been asked to change the examination pattern so as to test the descriptive and objective knowledge of the candidates. He was speaking at a session on higher education organised by Merchants’ Chamber of Commerce & Industry in the context of students scoring 100 per cent marks in board examinations in Kolkata.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) was asked by the Central government to lay stress on “descriptive and objective knowledge” and to upgrade the quality of education.
“This was done after discussing with all members of the state boards to bring parity in the system,” Singh said.
On framing education policies in the initial stage itself, Singh said: “Scientists are talking about fourth industrial revolution, Internet of Things, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence. Are we preparing our children for these? Innovation and creativity have to be ensured at the school level, it can’t just crop up at the college level.”
“In order to awaken curiosity in school children, ‘Atal Tinkering Labs’ was started in almost 3,000 schools of different states. It is not a matter of employability, it is to see the next generation is well prepared to receive, understand and adopt the new technologies”, Singh said.
He further pointed out that access to higher education is around 25.2 per cent in India. To address the issue, the government is building new schools and colleges to end social and regional imbalance.
“We are ready to give 100 per cent funds to states for making Central universities, provided they give us land for free. Priority will be given to those states that do not have a Central university.”
Singh while describing school education as the foundation of higher education quality, said, “In our educational policy, we are trying to address the no-detention policy till Class 10 started by the previous (UPA) government. We tried to make Class 10 board examination compulsory but education is mainly a state subject”.
As per NASSCOM-McKinsey Report ‘Perspective 2020: Transform Business, Transform India’, only 26 per cent of Indian engineering graduates were employable. In this context, the minister said: “We are seeing how academic and industry interface can be improved. This year, we have made it compulsory for engineering students to go for internships every year for almost a month. This will give them hands-on experience which will make them employable.”