CBSE's fashion studies course on a roll

NEW DELHI: Fashion Studies, introduced by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) this year, is on the roll.
The list of schools that will offer this subject in the current academic session to Class 11 has been finalised.
In all, over 100 schools from across the country feature in the list, of which about 20 are Delhi schools.
The schools that are offering the new subject include DPS Vasant Kunj, DPS RK Puram and Blue Bells School.CBSE officials said that the text books will be available to students in a "week''s time."
The CBSE had received over 200 applications from schools across the country seeking approval to offer the subjects. Initially, 69 schools were approved. Subsequently, more were added to the list, taking the number to about 100.
CBSE director (academics) G Balasubramanian said: "The books are ready. We have approved about 100 schools for offering the subject. Our teacher training programme starts next week and 30 schools have already confirmed participation."
Asked about granting selective approval, Balasubramanian said: "We have to see if the school has the infrastructure to offer the course or not. Availability of labs and space also has to be kept in mind."
A point that is given further credence by Cynthia Manoharan, principal of St Thomas School.
"We were to offer the subject this year onwards but have postponed it by a year. We have the teachers but the laboratory itself was setting us back by about Rs four lakh. If all goes well, we will be able to offer the course from next year onwards," she said. St Thomas is also in the CBSE''s list of approved schools.
Meanwhile, CBSE is hopeful regarding the response from the new course and expects that the first batch of ‘fashion savvy'' students should be over 1,500 strong.
"We are expecting at least about 20 students to take up the course in each of the selected schools," added Balasubramanian.