Perception, perception, perception! And then there is some truth behind the perception. So after starting with that line, here are MY reasons of why I would ask you to run away from state-boards and join a school with one of the national boards e.g. CBSE, ICSE, IB etc.
Quality of text books in state boards is poor:
Nothing specific to state boards here, it is just a numbers game. Since more schools and hence more students follow CBSE or ICSE curriculum so there is more business sense in writing text books for CBSE. Thus there are more writers and publishers in the field for CBSE text books. This ensures more competition and hence better text books in terms of content, quality of illustrations, printing etc as compared to state boards.
Quality of teachers/schools can be inferior:
Again the same logic of numbers. There are more jobs in CBSE schools and thus more teachers prefer to build their skills and experience on CBSE or ICSE curriculum as compared to state board where the opportunities are lesser. This impacts the quality of teachers. Ultimately this is school specific and a state board school may better teachers but chances of that happening are lesser.
Exam papers frequently suffer from controversies:
This needs no explanation. Every year, local papers and TV channels are full of news articles about wrong questions (usually too difficult or outside of subject matter) being part of the papers. They usually make their stories more credible by showing pictures of sobbing students and angry fathers! This used to be the case with CBSE too but it has greatly reduced over the past 5-8 years.
Exam dates are revised:
Every year, exam dates for state boards are regularly shifted. Reasons could be many, local elections, heavy rains, strike of local government school teachers etc. CBSE, for no merit of its own except that it is a large nationwide system, is saved from this misery.
Results are postponed with devastating consequences for students:
I know of at least 3 states where results are postponed every year. And finally students who want to apply to early admitting universities such as Delhi University suffer badly. This is the strongest reason for not going for state boards. Even if this happens even once, think of the consequences for your child. CBSE result, on the other hand, may suffer from postponements. Then they can get the universities to shift their admissions calendar. But this is not possible for state boards.
Acceptance of marks to universities is subject to some recalibration:
This has begun to happen less and less but some state boards still have a reputation. “It is easy to score 95% here than in CBSE”. Even if this is a wrong perception, it is still a perception. And it may have an impact.
Competitions, Talent search exams and scholorship exams
Several talent search examinations select their questions and content as per the CBSE and ICSE syllabubs. The state board students are at a natural disadvantage in such situation and might need additional preperation. Also, many such opportunities are not even advertised in state board schools.
These were indeed strong views. But they are my views and I stand by them. I would be happy to hear your views if you differ from me on these.