Which board is better igcse or ssc?

Answer 1

6 reasons why IGCSE will serve your child better than SSC

If you went through the SSC board, you might admit that a large chunk of the course material that you spent those 10 years laboring over, in fact goes unused or underused. What if you could accumulate learnings and skills at that stage which would better equip you for university, and further for the workplace or marketplace? Imagine starting out with useable skills, which can be honed in university and applied to today's creative and business processes. There is a long list of international schools in Mumbai that will prepare your child better for the real world.

1. Skills development

Where all of SSC's course material is theory-based, with extra curricular activities like sports, computer-literacy and a few laboratory experiments haphazardly thrown in, International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) achieves overall growth and development by offering a wide scope of subjects that are application-based and divided into five areas: Languages, Sciences, Maths, Business-Creative-Technical -Vocational, and Humanities and Social Sciences. This is a refreshing as compared to SSC's fixed list of subjects. Also, your child can choose any languages - Marathi is not compulsory.

1. Recognition

IGCSE comes with international recognition. All International Schools in India that offer the course are affiliated to Cambridge. The course is comparable to British GCSE and International O level. So basically, you're giving your child a global education in Mumbai

1. Preparedness for board exams

You know the drill at the SSC level. You have one year to prepare and some schools will be kind enough to teach you a section of the portion during class 9. However, at this Cambridge Schools, classes 9 and 10 do have the same course material portion and textbooks, in addition to class 8 being the preparatory phase for the IGCSE board exam - also taken at the end of class 10. Picture that whole two-year edge before appearing for a board exam! Your child could enjoy that advantage over his or her peers studying in SSC schools simply by studying at an International Schools in Mumbai.

1. Modern evaluation

Everything about SSC is exam-oriented. You might argue that evaluation has a role to play in a child's development, but SSC's approach to it ends up encouraging students to take in large chunks of information for a short period culminating in the exam - much of it is forgotten soon after. IGCSE schools in Mumbai and elsewhere hold Achievement Tests annually, towards the close of classes 1-7 and there is what is called a Checkpoint Test at the end of Class 8 and nearly 80 per cent of questions are application-based.

SSC's theory-oriented approach to exams is very textbook based - where all question papers, save for English perhaps, are based on textbooks, limiting the students ability to develop and apply skills (instead focusing completely on the accumulation of information - what we commonly call "by-hearting"). However, your child's development at an IGCSE school would be conducted through a host of assessment processes that complement the formal written exams-orals, practicals, projects and coursework of various types.

1. Processes comparable with the real world

Don't you think its an irony that right through school, you're taught to compete with your peers and never share notes, but when the workplace comes along you're expected to collaborate with your colleagues and share best practices? At IGCSE schools students are given tips on how to deal with stress and notes are exchanged. Moreover, just as managers in the workplace are expected to get the best out of their team, teachers are equipped with study kits to get the best out of their students.

Courses at IGCSE schools also put tremendous focus on developing a student's oral skills (your child will probably be more confident at his first big presentation than you were at yours). The also inculcate an investigative, solution-driven approach to problems.

1. They CANNOT fail

Drastically reducing the pressure on a student, IGCSE grades students, rather than giving them marks. The grades are Grades- A*, A, B, C, D, E, F where A* indicates top-level performance. There is no question of "fail" even at the board exam level.

We talked to Rims International School Mumbai, one of the best International Schools in the city to create this case study on an SSC student who made the switch to IGCSE:

Answer 2

The choice between IGCSE and SSC depends on your individual needs and preferences. IGCSE is an internationally recognized qualification, while SSC is more localized to India. IGCSE may offer a broader range of subjects and a more global perspective, while SSC may have a stronger focus on Indian curriculum and exams.