The Andhra Pradesh government has reversed a decision to affiliate 1,000 state schools with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) for the 2025 board exams. Instead, nearly 80,000 Class 10 students will now sit for exams conducted by the state education board. This reversal by the TDP government, which replaced the YSRCP regime, highlights critical issues in the state’s education system.
Why Were Andhra Schools Switching to CBSE?
In 2023, under the YSRCP government, around 1,000 of the state’s 6,845 government high schools were affiliated with CBSE as part of a broader initiative to improve educational standards. Former Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy pushed for this move, aiming to shift all government schools to the CBSE system by using NCERT textbooks. Approximately 76,990 students were expected to sit for the CBSE Class 10 exams in the current academic year.
However, the transition faced criticism for lacking “adequate groundwork.” According to Nara Lokesh, AP’s Minister for Human Resource Development, the sudden shift created uncertainty for students and teachers, who were ill-prepared for the CBSE system’s requirements.
What Prompted the Reversal?
In August 2024, the state assessed Class 10 students using CBSE-standard question papers. The results were alarming: 326 schools had a pass percentage of zero, and 556 schools had pass rates of only 1% to 25%. This poor performance highlighted the challenges in adapting to CBSE’s assessment system, which emphasizes critical thinking and analytical skills—a stark contrast to the rote memorization common in the state board exams.
The government acknowledged that neither students nor teachers had been adequately trained for this shift, leading to the decision to reverse the move and return to the state board exams for now.
What’s Next for Andhra Schools?
The state government plans to introduce gradual changes to improve education standards, starting from Class 6 in the next academic year. These changes will include introducing multiple-choice questions, case studies, and analytical questions, along with teacher training.
While the shift to CBSE has been deferred, it has not been entirely canceled. The state remains open to adopting the CBSE system in the future, but only once the necessary groundwork is in place.
