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It's that harrowing time of school admissions and I'm tearing my hair out in deciding what is best for my kid. I have been hearing varied opinions on ICSE/CBSE standards vis-a-vis the state boards. I'm from Mumbai and hence Maharashtra state board is applicable to us.

Opinions please. My kid is just 2 yrs old and I'm looking forward to his nursery admissions. It'd be easier if I start with a school where he'll end up doing the rest of the 12 yrs rather than changing it later on. I don't have a job which involves transfer and come from a middle class family.

Having experienced these just a few years ago, from ICSE I am giving you my opinion.

Dont meant to offend people who have passed out from state boards.

But if you want your son to get a better education, and not just easier admission into a state college, then enroll him in an ICSE or CBSE school.

What I have noticed is that in the state board SSC the kids are just overloaded till the 10th grade, with just learning from a book. So only mugging, no application.

From what I have read around, CBSE seems to be the best bet till now, since they are modernizing their syllabus and everything. OF course 10 years down the road when your son gives his 10th exam all of this could have changed. But I would say avoid SSC as of now.

I've heard that ICSE curriculum is good and quite a few students are not able to cope up. ALso SSC is changing for the better and at the end of the day it's up to the kid how much he can cope up.

Frankly the SSC exams may be easier, but the portions are humungous. In ICSE the portions are less, and the papers are not that difficult. IMO your kid will get a better education at the end of the day. ICSE will be easy as long as he is in a good school.

I understand the predicament.

But i am too confused over the ICSE and CBSE syllabus.

I am seeing my wife spend harrowing hours with my 4 yr old who has opted for ICSE. Too much of learning for a Lower KG kid is leaving me Baffled:eek:

SSC syllabus is just not competitive.

Wow really? I mean I dont think the ICSE can be blamed for that. Afterall it only sets the syllabus for the 10th grade exams. What is done in lower kg should be blamed on the school. Just IMO.

My son is presently enrolled in a CBSE board school in Nursery and I dont find anything extra ordinary in the school be it related to curiculum, sports, extra curricular activities. In fact a couple of children in our society who go a state board school seems to have a larger learnings than my son. I dont know it this is limited to initial years and maybe after 4/5th std the actual CBSE curriculum might prove better than state or ICSE.

FYI, I am contemplating of shifting to an ICSE school for Junior kg for my son next year.

But then ICSE is applicable only from the 1st standard isn't it? Till then it's the school's curriculum. Actually it should not even be called curriculum for kindergarten. They just have to follow a teaching methodology e.g. Montessori or IPC.

I've a 3 yrs young Son who will be stepping to school the forth coming academic year; I'd this played several times on my mind about 3-4 years ago (yes, even before we'd a child) & finally we drew our conclusions which I'll pen them down at the bottom.

Good that you've started thinking about it now; most parents do this only after admission :D

+1

+1

+1

There's no more public exam for CBSE from next year onwards, which is one of the path to disaster these days.

+1; we've our neighbour's son put up into ICSE school, who speaks only (little of butler) English (he's in 3rd grade) & every evening around 5:30 we hear a siren, nothing but his loud cry, and his fight with his Mother, obviously for studies. He has a huge, 3-4 times larger than my laptop bag to carry books & mountain of homework everyday!!!

+1

True; all my cousins are in CBSE & everything's normal these days

Pls reconsider several times!!!

Ok, now, I'm penning down my compiled thoughts that we underwent before deciding, here's some summary of our background.

Myself being a student of CBSE from KG to 12th, my love was & is still towards ICSE. However, when you look from the perspective of children, there're 2 aspects...
1. Children are to be left free, not always, but still; when they grow up, they'll have their own pressures, deliverables, time & what not? So let them experience little of freedom during their childhood, that ICSE restricts.
2. I might have trillions of money & ready to put my child even at Harvard (if a KG is available), BUT, is my Son/Daughter fit enough to undergo that education? What're their interests? Nothing should be forcefully imposed. I'd like my children to be given all the opportunities in life rather than sticking only to education all the time. If there's pile of homework everyday, they'll have time only to hate the school rather than enjoying school life.

What matters more to me are...
1. School should be near my home
1. They should be decent enough with affordable & less fees
2. They should provide ample time to spend at home; as a parent, I'll decide what I need to with my Children. The school will be ready to teach even horse riding skills, but, whether my children are interested or not is what the school will not know.
3. As a parent, I SHOULD have full responsibility with my child & cannot depend on the school saying, I'm leaving in school, so teachers, pls do take care of his education.
4. If the school doesn't burden with lots of homework, I can engage my child to learn about general knowledge, dance classes, vocal classes, improving vocabulary, swimming, marital arts & all the more - learn on automobiles, IF THEY'RE INTERESTED.
5. I'd rather provide all the possible opportunities to my children rather than restricting them only with school & education. Depending upon their interest, they can pursue to develop their interest further.

So my point is, be it CBSE, ICSE or state syllabus, the child will learn only when its free & will regret school life if things are too hard & fast.

Having said above, the syllabus of CBSE from what I passed out & what my cousins are undergoing are nearly similar except that, things've become much easier these days with CBSE from learning & understanding perspective. May be some ex-ICSE guys can throw some lights on ICSE education.

However, my Wifey being a state syllabus (topper in her class, while I was average in my class), I could clearly see the level of thinking varies between state & CBSE syallabus. ICSE & CBSE has their own edge over the state syllabus & I've seen that in several instances, right from my college days. Agreed, there're exceptions in both category, but as discussed here, ICSE>CBSE>State is true till the moment.

PS - Since we're talking about schools, I'd like to write-up some horror stories that I heard from my in-laws early this month when we visited them at Hosur. Let me know if anyone's interested hearing, I'll share those pathetic stories.

Thank you @aargee. This was quite helpful. I am leaning more and more towards the state board. Why don't you share some stories that you're mentioning. It'd really be interesting and who knows, even helpful for a parent like me.

Hi,

My views..cbse is biased towards science subjects and icse for language and literature.
There is one more international syllabus aslo coming up IGCSE. Pls check that also

Is there any syllabus that doesn't give out weekly projects to parents? Damn, I don't recall my parents doing a single school project. While we get to do one every week.:mad:

Meanwhile let me add one option for schooling, NIOS.

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF OPEN SCHOOLING

Glad to be of any least help :); though I'm from a CBSE background, most my opinions will be biased towards it, so what made you think state board is best?

Well, it all started on Saturday morning as a casual talk & then the topic switched to schools. They were talking about a certain school where they focused only on "rank" production & nothing else & here is how they achieve it...

The process begins when the child is at the beginning of 8th grade when they counsel (actually you can say brainwash) for parents & ask if they need to shape the child to average, topper or super topper category? The average is anywhere upto 90%, topper is from 90-97 & anything above 97 is super topper category.

Here're some of the unwritten (rigid) rules the child has to undergo for atleast 3 years (8, 9 & 10) for the topper & super topper category
- Classes starts from 7AM everyday & ends at 7 PM everyday
- No holiday on Saturday including Sunday. Not sure if Sunday has a flexible/relaxed time
- During the above timing, teachers also stay along with the students
- The child cannot be absent even for a single day; if it has to be mandate, then, parents has to appear physically before the headmaster for approval in advance. The headmaster & the class teacher will discuss to finalize if the leave is absolutely essential & then approve it.
- For instance, sick leave would be approved depending on the acuteness (no stomach ache, head ache business), but instance such as some close relative being passed away, its most likely to be disapproved.
- The maximum number of leaves permissible for one entire year is 2 days only

These are the only things that I can recall from the discussion; yes, there's an additional fee included for all the above. Our SIL knows about this is because, they've a neighbour, whose child is from the said school & the parents were being called for the categorization. After hearing the horrors, they decided their children to put under normal mode.

Last but not the least, the children who opt to stay out of the (rat???) race, Enjoys Sunday at home & go to school every alternate Saturdays.

PS - The school adopts Tamilnadu stateboard syllabus
PPS - The school has record of producing highest rank holder student in the state & award from CM every year.

lol: very hilarious comment sir; enjoyed!!!

WOW!!! That was something that I didn't know & would like to opt, except for the fact that, the schooling life will only be partially complete/enjoyed. When I searched for the study centres, one of the school is close to my home too :)

PPPS - Just dialled 1800 180 9393 toll free for information on NIOS after the first announcement of choosing Hindi/English for medium of communication, the line is disconnected automatically!!!

I studied in ICSE till class 7th(YPS Patiala),
In class 8th I shifted to CBSE due to city change, and I was pretty upset, because the whole line of education changed to pretty intense and boring.
I realized that most schools gave holidays homework, and also homework.
Earlier we had 1 hour "homework period" after lunch(day boarding till 2:30pm) and entire day was free.
Even when I shifted to non day boarding school, there was no homework, and everything was supposed to be done in school.
However, my nephews who are currently in CBSE say that till class 10th now the workload has severely reduced.
That said, I found ICSE syllabus stimulating to the mind, while CBSE is more about cramming. But thats my personal opinion.
It also depends on school to school and not all schools are same.
So look at not just ICSE/CBSE but also what kind of environment the school offers.

Those looking at state boards, a word of caution. When we were in college, lots of companies put min 75% marks in class 12th as requirement. This was a breeze for us CBSE guys, but for many state board guys, the toppers were in above 75% category.

So never put your kids in a board where topper gets max 80-85%.
It will cause them trouble later.

+1 about weekly projects to parents. And many of those projects are about pasting ready made stickers. Sigh!

NIOS is great for kids who want to do their studies in addition to something else like dancing/singing etc. A great option that few schools offer.

And yes whatever the board, the school and its teachers make a great impact. These days the teachers keep changing very frequently which is not a good thing. My son studies in a CBSE school. I find that they are trying to cram too much, too early. There is very little homework, but the syllabus itself makes me wonder "Why so much, so early?"