State to start open board school in January

Mumbai: The Maharashtra State Open Board School (OBS), the ambitious project of the state education department, will kick-start from January next year. The open board school will cater to pupils who could not complete their education, dropouts, and disabled students. This school, in a first in the country, will have mathematics as an optional subject and sports as the main subject for students who are sports enthusiasts but cannot cope up with sports and academics at the same time.

“The idea of OBS is fundamentally to help students who find it difficult in regular schools. Here, the students who have failed, dropped out due to any reason, are specially-abled, or want to focus on sports but still want to pass out with a Class 10 certificate, can come and fulfill their dream,” a senior official at the state education department told this newspaper.

This school will provide multiple options to the student, as per their requirements and preferences. Some of these options include selection of subjects, no compulsory attendance, flexibility in examinations, etc. As per officials, the OBS will be under the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE), which currently manages all the boards in the state.

OBS won’t have Classes 1 to 12 when it kick-starts; it will have only three Classes i.e. five, eight and 10, instead. Gradually, it will increase grades as per the requirement. Unlike the examination pattern of mainstream schools, OBS will have exams for Class 5 and 8 in June and for Class 10 in December.

As of now, the state has inked several tie-ups with expert academicians who are creating a special curriculum for the students. The curriculum will be made considering the students who join the school. The official said, “Students won’t be the regular ones because if they were regular, they would join mainstream schools and not OBS. Meanwhile, students with special disability or those who are interested in any kind of sports or arts will have a different curriculum for their betterment.”