ICSE, CBSE or IB? How to Choose the Right School Board for Child?

How does one go about choosing the right board, perhaps even before looking at various schools for one’s child? The first time this dawned on me was when my daughter turned 30 months. I realized that, when it comes to choosing a school for your child, perhaps, one crucial aspect to be considered is, choosing the right board for your child—ICSE, CBSE, IB, or SSC? I then met friends and experts, and of course, have now got an interesting summary of my understanding from all my research on various boards. I followed this up with a detailed discussion with Parentune’s Founder and Education Expert, Nitin Pandey. We bring to you a lowdown on each of these boards, with their pros and cons. Read here and I hope this shall help you in making the right choice.

What Are School Boards in India?

Here are recognized school boards from which you choose for your child. Read pros & cons & more here.

SSC-

SSC board is primarily syllabus focused and the entire curriculum is driven to complete the syllabus. It has its own limitations such as limited infrastructure, low on technology resources and physical infrastructure but this also makes it a reasonable choice from the point-of-view of fees. On the flip side, it lacks flexibility in cases of change of location/state/city. Also, in competitive exams, SSC becomes a bit of adjustment upwards.

HSC-

This is also referred to as the State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education. Each state has their board examination which is run in private as well as state-run institutions. The curriculum is based on the ideology to incorporate the entire syllabus through rote learning and often lacks the idea of experiential learning. They bring the freshness of regional language which gives your child the required mileage if they aspire to appear in civil services examination conducted by PSC (State run service commission) and UPSC (Union Public Service Commission).

CBSE-

This is the largest education board in India and is has been flaked in the past to have been highly focused on syllabus coverage. But, offlate CBSE has got a new assessment called CCE-wherein they are trying to change and become project-oriented and continuous and ongoing in their assessment of the child in both- scholastics as well as coscholastics. It also has now tweaked its curriculum to incorporate a balance between scholastics and co-scholastics. While the intent is great, it has been meeting its own challenges in reaching an ideal state. A big advantage with CBSE is that it has maximum number of schools and hence the standardised syllabus enables easy movement for a child between cities and schools within India.

ICSE-

ICSE is a board focussed on project-based learning and understanding concepts right from the beginning. It is not much biased towards syllabus completion, but at the same time is competitive enough. The assessment framework of ICSE has been focused on academic as well as extra-currics. It also has a good balance between science subjects and arts, in fact at times has been blamed to be biased towards an excessive focus on language learning. ICSE is about electives and therefore gives a child the freedom of choice to nurture his/her interests. But on the other side, it is a smaller community of schools compared to CBSE and is clustered in prominent places within the town area of India in Southern and Northern States like Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Kolkata, Karnataka, Delhi, Chandigarh, UP, MP, AP and Telangana. The availability of ICSE-run schools has grown multi-fold in urban India over the past few years.

Also READ: Explore experts advice on selecting board or school for your child

IB— International Boards

This is a concept that is gathering a lot of steam recently. The schools that choose to go in for IB board have to follow stringent rules for correct infrastructure, extra-curricular activities, teacher training, staff and even curriculum. These criteria have been set by international universities. IB gives children a very good edge when it comes to preparing for an education abroad as the model is loosely based on international education structure. Students are required to give dissertations, more MCQ and concept-based exams and are judged heavily on projects. It is very hands on too that helps strengthen the foundation of concepts. With the introduction of smart board education, most of the IB Board schools are offering tablet as the basic hardware for the Middle Years Programme (Class 6-10) and the Diploma Programme (Class 10-12) On the flipside, it is an expensive affair and most schools that go in for IB have very high fees. Also, if you want your child to take on Indian competitive exams it might not be a very wise choice.

IGCSE - 

International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) is also referred to as the Cambridge IGCSE. It’s a widely offered program across the globe and is an equivalent of the British GCSE and is in line with a progression towards Btec level 3 and the IB Diploma Program (IBDP). It has two key stages, the lower secondary for children between 11 to 14 years of age and the higher secondary for children between 14 to 16 years. Once the child goes through the IGCSE Board (grades 6 to 10), it’s replaced by the “AS level”(11th grade equivalent) and “A Level” (12th grade equivalent).

The IGCSE Board is similar to the grade 10 CBSE Board. Once completed, students can choose to appear in their 12th board through the IB curriculum. IGCSE is a good option for those who are looking to apply and study at international universities. It has more focus on English and technical subjects. It takes a project and activity focus in their curriculum. Most of the students opt in for IB for AS and A level. 

Indian Board Curriculum Comparision

Here's an extensive breakdown of the ICSE, CBSE, SSC and IB board and answers to all your important questions. Read more. 

Questions to Ask While Evaluating Various Boards 

You can keep these key points in mind while evaluating various education boards for your child:

• What are the chances of a movement to an International location for you and your family in the near future (5 years or less)? 

• Would you like your child to do their graduation from an international University outside of India? 

• Do you or your child have a broad aspiration in terms of an interest area or a profession? 

• Is your child more inclined towards academics or extracurricular areas or sports? 

• Would you like your child to appear in Indian competitive entrance exams like the State engineering and medical entrances and National competitive exams? 

• Which board are you more inclined towards and why? 

• What are your expectations from your child’s school? Top 3 expectations?

Beware of Some Fake Indian Boards Operating in Delhi

While you explore the aforementioned boards to pick the right one for your child, it is imperative that you are aware of some fraudulent boards running in smaller institutions in the national capital, Delhi.

In one of the recent reports published in TOI. There are 12 boards which have been declared as fake by DoE (Directorate of Education, Govt. of Delhi). Here goes the list.

• Urdu Education Board

• Gramin Mukth Vidhalyai Shiksha Sansthan,

• Delhi Board of Secondary Education

• The Central Board of Higher Secondary Education

• National Open School

• Board of Secondary Open Education

• Higher Secondary Education Board of Delhi

• State Council of Secondary Open Education

• Delhi Board of Senior Secondary Education

• Board of Higher Secondary Education of Delhi

• Council of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education, Delhi

• The Central Board of Higher Education Delhi