There are multiple syllabi of education in India. There’s
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State board
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Matriculation
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Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE)
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Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE)
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International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE)
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International (IBO and Cambridge syllabuses)
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National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) syllabus
Above is a comparison of State Board, ICSE, Matriculation and CBSE boards in India. To know more about the difference between each of these boards of education, check out these links:
What is the exact difference between ICSE and IGCSE? (Quora)
Each state in India has its own state board and matriculation board syllabus. CBSE syllabus is uniform throughout India. Also, they alternate between saying “standard” and “grade”. Typically, they use the word “standard” to talk about which year the student is in school, but when copying people in the West, usually America, some people use the word “grade” as well.
In state, matriculation and CBSE board schools, students take a board exam in their 10th and 12th grades. These board exam marks are very important in India. When you complete 10th standard, you have to choose a stream to take for 11th and 12th grades. These streams are basically a group of subjects you will study for the next two years.
Usually, schools offer:
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Bio group (biology, physics, chemistry, math and English)
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Computer Science group (CS, physics, chemistry, math and English)
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Commerce group (business studies, accountancy, economics, English, and sometimes math)
The above three groups are offered by all schools. Some schools also offer a humanities group where students study subjects like history. Schools may also offer other subjects, depending on the availability of teachers to teach those subjects.
Below is a gallery of images taken at Montfort school in Chennai to help you catch a glimpse inside a real school in India.
Click on the gallery to expand!
Students decide which stream they want to take based on their ambition. The stereotype goes that all the students aiming to be doctors will take bio group, the engineers and computer-related majors will choose computer science, and the future chartered accountants will follow the commerce stream.
Because of this selection of groups and the syllabus being easier in some boards than others for the 12th standard board exams, students take the opportunity to change schools or boards after 10th standard. Schools tend to give seats to students in each stream based on their 10th standard board exam marks, or with an entrance exam. This is why a student’s 10th grade report card is important.
However, speaking from experience, the 10th standard boards have been hyped up by parents and teachers alike to the point where students are put under enormous pressure for absolutely nothing. The 10th grade syllabus is honestly not that difficult. It’s the 12th standard boards though that are truly horrendous and the pressure there is because your board exam scores help determine what college you get admission into.
Admissions into colleges are based almost purely on one’s academics. Unlike in the US, they seldom take extracurriculars, community service, leadership experience, or essays into account when deciding if a student gets a seat in their college or not.