Students stick with Tamil Nadu board after X

CHENNAI: Around this time last year, students who had passed their

SSLC

exams were vying for seats in CBSE schools. But this year, many are choosing to continue in

TN board

schools after Class X. Shree Niketan group of schools, which has both matriculation and CBSE branches, said at least 20% of its state board students switched to CBSE schools last year and also witnessed an internal shift within their branches. This year there has barely been any migration, the school says. Correspondent of the school, Vishnucharan said a major reason for this could be that there is no panic surrounding NEET like last year.

"There was a perception that state board students would be doomed if they were not familiar with the CBSE syllabus. However, many state board students who trained for NEET were able to clear it. This has given them confidence," he said.

Another reason cited by schools is the revamping of the state board syllabus. "This could have reassured parents that syllabus will be on a par with CBSE standards to equip students on conceptual thinking," said Vishnucharan.

The overall pattern of migration from state board to CBSE across classes has been gradual. While 8.6 lakh school Class XII students appeared from state board this year, the number was higher in 2017 at 8.9 lakh. On the other hand, CBSE numbers rose from 56,700 last year to 71,400 this year. But at the SSLC level this year, the shift is markedly lower, say schools.

Sarah Alexander, Principal of Spartan school, said while their matriculation students tend to continue with them, last year they saw about a 5% dip due to shift to CBSE. This year, only one student from the school has sought a shift to the CBSE branch. "A lot of thought has gone into the revamped syllabus. A few of my former matriculation students were doubting their decision to shift," she said. Alexander also says that several state board schools including theirs are entering into tie-ups for providing competitive exam coaching and this could be further incentive for students to stay on.

Revathy Bonns, principal of MCC Matriculation Higher Secondary says that hardly any of her students are moving out this year in contrast to the previous year.

"The rising standards are evident even in the kind of question papers that were set for the boards this year. With less number of centums and fair evaluation, the focus is now on quality. So we can rely on these results much more even though the revamp will take time to kick in," she said.