CBSE starts new courses in GIS, media studies

NEW DELHI - In a bid to give school education a vocational touch, the Central Board of Secondary Education Monday announced the starting of two new courses in geospatial practices and media studies for class 11 and 12 students.

Speaking at the occasion, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal strongly advocated introducing new courses in the curriculum at the school and university levels.

“As new career options are beckoning to students, we must prepare to address their needs,” he said.

The media course has been started in collaboration with Mumbai-based Whistling Woods International Media Institute while the geospatial practices course will be launched in collaboration with geo-informatics major Rolta India.

“The private sector is coming forward to cooperate in educating our children and we need more cooperation from them,” Sibal added.

This will be followed by a course in hospitality being introduced in the 10+2 syllabus.

“Some more vocational courses are in the pipeline. A course in hospitality will be launched Tuesday. We are as well considering some courses in the fields of health and physical education, but they will come later,” Secretary (School Education) Anshu Vaish told IANS.

The course in geospatial practices will include different components of Geographic Information System and Remote Sensing. The course will initially be started in 13 schools. It will be later expanded to other schools countrywide.

“We will be providing nearly 11,000 licenses for ‘Rolta Geoinformatica’ valued approximately around Rs.165 crore,” Rolta India Limited chairman and managing director K. Kamal Singh said.

The media course will be started in 16 schools on a pilot basis.

“The course has been designed based on the needs of Indian students after extensive research of various media course curriculum worldwide,” noted film director and Whistling Woods International’s chairman Subhash Ghai.