Gujarat gets its own open school board

Gujarat Open School Board (GOSB) has been constituted by the Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB) to facilitate thousands of students who take SSC and HSC board exams externally.
This unprecedented move follows the board’s decision to help about 70,000 students. These students are those who had either dropped out of school or left education for jobs and later decide to take the board exams externally to complete their education.
The GSHSEB officials that nearly 25,000 students appear for the SSC board as external students annually. The number goes up to 40,000-45,000 in HSC board exams.
Under the GOSB, the external students will get the option to enrol themselves for weekend classes which will be started in schools all over the state. These classes will run on Saturday and Sunday, where teachers will give the external students guidance in terms of preparing the syllabus for the exams and solving their difficulties.
The GSHSEB has also decided to pay some remuneration to the teachers, who will be appointed to help the external students to keep the motivational levels high.
Vice-chairman of GSHSEB HK Patel said that the rules of the GOSB are being framed. “We are making provisions to make books, guides and other reading material available to the external students from board, as well as, the school libraries. The aim is to facilitate the initiative of more and more students who have left their education in between,” said Patel.
He said that there is also a move to ensure that the external students are eligible to apply for certain professional courses for their further studies.

Courtsey: Bharat Yagnik | TNN

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