Hyderabad: From the academic year beginning April 2019, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has kept one compulsory period for sports for classes I to VIII; for classes IX to XII, there will be three sports periods per week.
The educational board has decided to implement the Health and Physical Education programme to ensure that children have time for sports, games and outdoor activity.
Students can also choose from among 40 vocational courses introduced as the sixth subject, apart from the normal five subjects.
The vocational courses are not compulsory. Schools that do not have enough teachers tend not to offer these courses.
There are 200 CBSE schools in Hyderabad and only half of them have opted for the sixth subject.
Sunir Nagi, principal of Pallavi Model School at Alwal told this newspaper that the sixth subject is “to give an additional skill to the student which keeps them in tune with the present times.”
“There are many courses offered to the students and each school has the choice to pick what suits them and their set-up,” the principal added.
The vocational courses include information technology, automobile engineering, beauty, wellness, fashion, yoga, electronics and the latest that has captured the imagination of the present generation — artificial intelligence.
A senior CBSE teacher said that a new course requires adequate number of teachers, a place for the set-up, and enough students wanting to take that course. For this reason, every year the board carries out a review and adds or deletes some courses.
Such courses develop a student’s skills, but faculty must be available, which is not always the case, and the cost must be affordable.
Yoga, information technology, fashion, wellness and horticulture are popular because the cost is low and teachers are available.
