New Delhi: Union Minister of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Kapil Sibal, in his 100 Days' Plan to reform the educational system of the country, has proposed one national examination board instead of several state-wise boards and two national boards in the country.

Sibal has also proposed to make the Class X Board exam optional. All these have been proposed by the minister with an aim to de-traumatise the education sector.

Sibal has also favoured a law to prohibit and punish malpractices in his ambitious plan to reform education.

In his effort to bring changes in the examination system, he has also proposed to replace marking system with the grading system.

Moving towards another big step, Sibal wants to setup an independent and autonomous accreditation authority to rate schools.

He pointed out: "At present there is no accreditation policy for schools. If any child goes to a school, he has no information how the school is. There is no agency in India to accredit them or give the school a rating."

With an aim to make free education sector from the control of the bureaucrats, the government would bring in a law to set up an "autonomous and independent" agency for assessment and accreditation in higher education.

"This will have experts and scholars. The government will have nothing to do with it," Sibal said.

In his academic reforms proposal, semester system and credit transfers will begin to be rolled out in the coming 100 days. In this 100 days plan, nothing has been mentioned about the quotas.

All state boards except Kerala, Orissa and West Bengal has supported the proposal to setup a national board instead of various state and two national boards.

Supporting the new move Uttar Pradesh Government was the the first to announce the grading system for the board examinations. This is likely to be implemented from the next academic session. However, the state has not favoured scrapping the class X board examination.

Assam's Director of State Council for Education Research and Training (SCERT) H.P. Bhattacharya said, "These days class XII is the basic qualification. In such a situation, making class XII exam as an external examination instead of class X is not a bad move."

While Rajasthan Board says, "Eradicating board examination is a revolutionary idea. We need to take several steps before implementing all these suggestion to reform education system."

On this move, Mridual Sinha, State HRD Secretary, Jharkhand says, "It is a welcome move announced by the ministry to be implemented in the next 100 days. The proposed system will be helpful to churn out better talent."

Andhra Pradesh sounds cautious. "All these proposals are good for students and state but it needs to be studied entirely. A decision will be taken only after a thorough examination of the proposal," said Manikya Varaprasada Rao, Secondary Education Minister.

Kerala education minister M.A. Baby said, "The proposal to scrap class X examination needs to be discussed meticulously. All state education ministers should sit together to discuss this issue. The centre should not take a unilateral decision."

Accompanying his counterpart from Kerala, West Bengal education minister Partho De said, "I would go all out to oppose the plane. One cannot scrap the class X examination by just saying it is stressful."

Orissa does not favour it too. "If these proposals come into effect it will ruin the future of students," said Kishore Panda, Secretary, Orissa secondary school teachers association.

The HRD Minister's ambitious 100 Days' Plan is drawing a mixed response from the education community of the country.

A quick glance at the list of targets appears to give the impression that the Ministry would like to achieve in 100 days what could easily take a full term.

Click Here to see Kapil Sibal's 100 Days' Plan