About ICSE Syllabus in India...

[Chappani]

Hi Friends,

I have my son Rohan, waiting to join school.
I have different opinions comming regarding the school and the
syllabus to be taken up. I studies in SSC and have no idea about the ICSE syllabus, Please tell me

1) is ISCE better than the state syllabus.
2) What advantages I get by taking up ICSE over state syllabus (SSE) and vice versa.
3) If my son continues in ICSE, would he be at an advantage or disadvantage after 12th in CET when we wants to join ENgg/ Medical??

Please help me..

Thanks and Regards,

[hehehewalrus]

Chappani,
From the content of your posts I think your are referring to the system in Karnataka, not Tamil Nadu. Most of us are from TN here and not in a position to tell anything.
From what I understand, and it applies to most states in India, the state syllabus(SSC) is the lightest of all and ICSE is more or less equivalent to it. CBSE is the best though the load is heavier - you can go for it if you find a CBSE school with skilled and caring teachers and a competitive student environment. You can switch from CBSE anytime, it wont have any adverse effects

[lordstanher]

I donno abt CBSE but in ICSE, pressure/level of toughness of Maths and English is more comp'd to State syllabus! In English for eg., when I was in 9th & 10th, we had 2 books of prose and and 1 book on drama (Shakespeare's!).......I'm not sure if its still in the syllabus....?
State syllabus (SSC) might be easier comp'd to ICSE & CBSE but in SSC there r 2 public exams, one at the end of 7th class and another of course, at the end of 10th......In ICSE (& I think even CBSE?) therez a public exam only at the end of 10th...

[nirosha sen]

Hey guys - This sounds like an interesting thread, Pa!!

Care to enlighten the rest of us, Diaspora Indians on the merits and demerits of your education system???

Please start on the very 1st year if you could? Like how many options are there in terms of state sponsored education???

Do private schools have a separate syllabus???

What is CBSE, ICSE and SSC???? How do they differ from each other?????

Please don't look at my queries as tiresome as I'm genuinely interested!

[hehehewalrus]

Care to enlighten the rest of us, Diaspora Indians on the merits and demerits of your education system???

Please start on the very 1st year if you could? Like how many options are there in terms of state sponsored education???

Oh Boy!!!!
Scribe Sen, there are atleast 40+ education boards in India and that is for the schooling system alone. To elaborate on each of them will take a Rumplestilskin. For engg itself, TN has around 250 colleges spread over....how many, 15 universities?. You can extrapolate over the remaining 27 states.

Please don't look at my queries as tiresome as I'm genuinely interested!

Are you sending someone over to study? to which state? for what area of study? What insti attracted him/her?
Give the specifics and it may be worth an answer.

Stanher, which state did you mean when you said SSC? I think the threadstarter meant Karnataka, I answered for TN and you meant AP!

[lordstanher]

Care to enlighten the rest of us, Diaspora Indians on the merits and demerits of your education system???

"your" education system?? Um......I thot u were originally from India too....?

Please start on the very 1st year if you could? Like how many options are there in terms of state sponsored education???

Umm......sorry I didn't quite get the qsn.- afa as I'm aware all subjects in State syllabus r compulsory from 1st -10th standard....the only options I'm aware of (tat too in AP) r choosing language subjects- 1st lang. Hindi or Telugu, 2nd lang. Telugu or Special English (which I reckon is not as tough as the eng. literature we had in ICSE).....

Do private schools have a separate syllabus???

Afa as I'm aware, all schools whether Govt. or private, hav to follow the same syllabus they r registered with, be it ICSE/CBSE/SSC.

What is CBSE, ICSE and SSC???? How do they differ from each other?????

CBSE = Central Board of Secondary Education
ICSE = Indian Council for Secondary Education
SSC = Secondary School certificate (in my parents' time it was known as SSLC, L = leaving)

CBSE & ICSE r both central (Delhi-based) boards......the public exam at the end of 10th is conducted by them....SSC is a State Govt. run board....it provides the option of English Medium as well as local lang. unlike the first 2.......The syllabus of all the 3 boards varies.....
oh yea, forgot one more thing- CBSE has their sec. education upto 12th class, in ICSE/SSC its only upto 10th.....altho I was told tat ICSE 10th passed students can now continue upto 12th (which is known as ISC?)

Please don't look at my queries as tiresome as I'm genuinely interested!

Not at all! I'm in fact impressed tat a non-India based person is genuinely interested in our education system when many of our native ppl. think otherwise of it!
I hope I've been able to provide sufficient info. to ur queries....? If not do feel free for more clarification.....

[lordstanher]

Stanher, which state did you mean when you said SSC? I think the threadstarter meant Karnataka, I answered for TN and you meant AP!

Yea sorry, I guess I was replying based on my knowledge of AP-based SSC schools!
So don't SSC schools in TN/other states hav public exam after 7th??
And btw, um....I thot ur based in B'bay?

[hehehewalrus]

the only options I'm aware of (tat too in AP) r choosing language subjects- 1st lang. Hindi or Telugu, 2nd lang. Telugu or Special English (which I reckon is not as tough as the eng. literature we had in ICSE).....

well in TN, I got thru my entire schooling without learning a single indian language. So you see, the language policies differ from state to state.

Do private schools have a separate syllabus???

Afa as I'm aware, all schools whether Govt. or private, hav to follow the same syllabus they r registered with, be it ICSE/CBSE/SSC.

And in TN, private schools have a syllabi of their own!

Not at all! I'm in fact impressed tat a non-India based person is genuinely interested in our education system when many of our native ppl. think otherwise of it!

Nobody contests the fact that it is damn good, I'd say the schooling syllabi is among the world's top actually(for science/engg). The messy thing is that its not a flexible one given the disparity in standards of the different boards. You will ruin urself if you switch from one to other. And I dont foresee a homogenous system for the country considering the diversities of cultures.

And btw, um....I thot ur based in B'bay?

did schooling in TN, latter life was all over in cosmo environments

[nirosha sen]

Okay Lord - to your query abt me? I'm 4th generation Malaysian Indian, Pa!! Only been to India 3x!! Married to someone who still has a big part of his life left in India!

Indian education has left me always with so many questions but had been too flummoxed to ask further, actually!! In fact, from both your answers, I'm still mystified!!

In M'sia, there is only a uniform syllabus available for all secondary schools!! But honestly, India's system fascinates me!! How do they tie up, by the time you hit college or unversity????? Do institutes of higher learning accept all the above pre-U qualifications or do they set other criteria????

Delhi-based curriculum is what??? Only English medium????? Throughout the 12 years of school?????

Walrus - TN sounds incredibly flexible, Pa!! Do they really allow you to breeze thru school without ever requiring an Indian Lang. as 2nd or 3rd lang.????

My son is still young. Only 13, but yeah, I wouldn't mind scouting around a system, that nurtures him better, than what he gets here, though

[lordstanher]

well in TN, I got thru my entire schooling without learning a single indian language.

Wow......'wish I'd studied there......wud've been as lucky!
Btw, u studied in SSC (State) syllabus rite??
Neways, I guess atleast this eliminates my earlier opinion tat schools in TN r very particular abt including Tamil in their syllabus!

And in TN, private schools have a syllabi of their own!

U mean schools of all boards or only SSC??

Nobody contests the fact that it is damn good, I'd say the schooling syllabi is among the world's top actually(for science/engg).

Hmm......on a not-too-related note, best thing I like abt our schools is the discipline they emphasise on!
Like for eg. showing mandatory respect for the teachers by wishing them whenever they walk in/out of the class, even if they just happen to drop in for a min., standing up while talking to them etc.......quite an astounding contrast to our colleges & Univs. (Govt. as well as private!)......

The messy thing is that its not a flexible one given the disparity in standards of the different boards. You will ruin urself if you switch from one to other.

Quite true. Esp. got to avoid switching over from SSC to ICSE after 7th, 'cos the latter had a continuous syllabus in most of the subjects covering 3 successive yrs (8th- 10th)......so if a student decided to join an ICSE school in say 9th or 10th, they'd be in trouble as they wud've missed the entire portion in the previous year/s, which wud ultimately appear for the 10th board exams!
I think ICSE realised tat as I rem. during my time (circa 8-10 yrs ago!) in our school they'd thankfully 'downsized' the syllabus to include only portion from 9th to 10th, instead of 8th onwards! *phew*

And I dont foresee a homogenous system for the country considering the diversities of cultures.

Right again! Esp. when it comes to languages!
I had a hell of a time when my parents had to transfer to Bhuvaneswar (Orissa) in 1991.....I was in 5th then and we had our 2nd lang. as Hindi (or Oriya) and 3rd lang. as Oriya, Hindi only for those who took 2nd lang. Oriya!
So I had no choice but to learn Oriya right from scratch, having more of a burden comp'd to those who'd already mastered the lang. from 3rd onwards!
Luckily my father got a transfer back to Hyd. a year later and I continued my 6th there, which was no prob. as I'd switched to a school of the same syllabus (ICSE).....w/ only minor differences in the portion.
Also, I was all the more lucky as in this school, it was not mandatory to learn the native lang. (telugu) as there was an option of Sanskrit as 3rd lang. (tat too only upto 8th) unlike my school in Orissa, which was also of the same syllabus! 2nd lang. was of course Hindi, which I was already familiar w/.....
So I agree ICSE shud do sumthing abt this lang. problem.....it might be ok to continue Hindi as a common lang. throughout the nation but they cud give up on the regional lang.s.....?