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Education in India has become a booming industry, managed by the public and

the private sector, with central, state and local bodies managing its operations.

Education has played a key role in the Indian Constitution and every ruling party of the

Centre and State has ensured the progress of education in the form of definite bills and

laws. An Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) from 2013 stated that there were

22.9 crore students enrolled in different accredited urban and rural schools of India,

from Class I to XII. This represents an increase of 23 lakh students over 2002’s total

enrolment, and a 19% increase in girl's enrolment.

India has taken strides to make education available to all and to improve the

quality of education made available to everybody. One of the key differentiating factors

in the Indian Education system when compared to the international education systems

is the number of education boards available in India. Unlike a unified educational

policy across the country in some foreign countries, India has central education boards,

state-run education boards as well as international boards of education.

Each board has its distinctive characteristic in the curriculum, syllabus, teachinglearning

methods, subjects handled, evaluation process and other attributes. As

educational consultants, education leaders and managers of educational institutions, it

is imperative for them to know about the various comparative attributes of these

boards. This paper presents a preliminary look at the comparisons of some of the

various boards available.

Initiatives of Government of India on School Education

The education sector in India has in recent years witnessed a host of admirable policy initiatives from the central government. The emphasis on education in the Central Budget has been on the rise in the recent years with a subsequent hike in the 2013–14 edition. The budget proposed a fund outflow of Rs 65,869 crore (658 billion) for the sector, an increase of a little over 7 per cent from that in the previous fiscal year. The school education was allocated Rs 49,659 crore (496 billion), an increase of approximately Rs 4000 crore YoY (40 billion).

Under school education, an amount of Rs 286.35 billion is being provisioned for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and Rs 49.66 billion for Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) alone. Several schemes and budgetary allowances have been announced for the education domain. The budget has special focus on education of the girl child with the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme and the resolution of providing one hundred thousand girls toilets and drinking water facilities in schools targeted to benefit 10 million girls in the first phase hoping to reduce dropouts in the process. The budget also provides for the modernization of the madrasas. The allocation hopes to reach out to 1 million Muslim children to get education of national standards certified through the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS). To ensure quality of education, the Budget also provides for Rs 300 million for School Assessment Programme. An amount of Rs 5 billion has been provided to the Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya’s Teacher Training Programme which will benefit nearly 20,000 teacher trainees studying in Teacher Education Institutions. Apart from these, plans are there to set up virtual classrooms as Communication Linked Interface for Cultivating Knowledge (CLICK) and Massive Open Online Courses and a national e-library against a budgetary provision of Rs 1 billion.

Under the government’s flagship Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) programme, the government will strategically look into:

i.	strong focus on learning outcomes;

ii. ii. Addressing residual access and equity gaps;

iii. iii. focus on teacher and education leadership;

iv. iv. linkages with other sectors and programmes

REFERENCES

Kumar, S. (2016) Difference between CBSE, ICSE, IGCSE, IB and state board. Available at: http://kiitislibrary.weebly.com/library-blog/-difference-between-cbse-icse-igcse-ib-and-state-board (Accessed: 5 December 2016).

Kapoor, S. (2014) What are key differences between various boards in India viz. SSC, ICSE, CBSE, IB, A level etc? Available at: https://www.quora.com/What-are-key-differences-between-various-boards-in-India-viz-SSC-ICSE-CBSE-IB-A-Level-etc (Accessed: 5 December 2016).

Infolona (no date) Available at: http://www.infolona.com/career_and_education/education_boards_comparison/find (Accessed: 5 December 2016).

Dsouza, R. (2016) School board comparison: CBSE vs IB vs ICSE vs IGCSE vs state board. Available at: https://www.preplane.com/blog/school-board-comparison-cbse-vs-ib-vs-icse-vs-igcse-vs-state-board/ (Accessed: 5 December 2016).

The British Council, India (2014) Indian school education system an overview. Available at: https://www.britishcouncil.in/sites/default/files/indian_school_education_system_-_an_overview_1.pdf (Accessed: 5 December 2016).

Kerala state education board (2016). . In Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerala_State_Education_Board#History

Maharashtra state board of secondary and higher secondary education (2016). . In Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maharashtra_State_Board_of_Secondary_and_Higher_Secondary_Education#Board_of_Studies