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CBSE: MANDATORY FEE DISCLOSURE:
☛ The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has revamped affiliation norms for schools, taking the entire process online and focusing on learning outcomes, human resource development minister Prakash Javadekar said on Thursday.
☛ Schools will have to make mandatory fee disclosure and ensure there are no hidden costs for parents, he asserted.The new bylaws have simplified the procedure by preventing duplication of processes at CBSE and state government levels, Javadekar said.
☛ As per the current procedure for issuing recognition under the RTE Act and NOC, the state education administration verifies various certificates to be obtained from local bodies, revenue department, cooperatives department, etc. The CBSE used to re-verify them after the applications were received.
☛ “This is very long process. Therefore, to prevent this duplication, schools will now be required to submit only two documents at the time of applying for affiliation, instead of 12-14 documents being submitted earlier,” a statement issued by CBSE said.
☛ One would be a document vetted by the head of district education administration validating all aspects such as building safety, sanitation, land ownership, etc, and the other would be a self-affidavit where the school would certify its adherence to fee norms, infrastructure norms, etc., it said.
☛ As a result, the Board shall not revisit any of the aspects vetted by the state during inspection, and the delay due to scrutiny and non-compliance of deficiencies in these documents shall be drastically curtailed.
☛ Inspection of schools will now be outcome-based, and more academic and quality-oriented, rather than focussing only on school infrastructure, Javadekar said.This will not only help the Board and the school to track students’ progress over time, but will also identify areas that would need further efforts.
☛ The entire process will be online, the CBSE said, adding that applications would be disposed off in the same year.
☛ The school inspection will be done as soon as applications are received. On satisfactory inspection report, the Board will issue a Letter of Intent to the school, indicating its intention to affiliate the school.
☛ Schools will submit an online commencement certificate latest by March 31 of the given year, based on which the board shall confirm affiliation of the school. Only then shall the schools be able to start new academic session under CBSE.
☛ The new affiliation bylaws also lay thrust on achieving academic excellence through mandatory teacher training. Even the principals and vice-principals are expected to undergo two days’ mandatory training on an annual basis, the CBSE said.
☛ The CBSE statement said a special category of innovative schools has been added to include specialised schools, which are implementing innovative ideas in the fields of skill development, sports, arts, sciences and others.
☛ With regard to fees, a full fee disclosure shall be made and no hidden charges to be levied by schools in the garb of fees, the Board stated. Fee revision shall be subject to laws, regulations and directions of the appropriate government.
☛ Also, for the first time, the bylaws encourage schools to promote environmental conservation through harnessing solar energy, rain water harvesting, greening of campus, recycling and segregation of waste, Swachhata on campus, etc.
☛ CBSE, the country’s premier education board, has 20,783 schools affiliated to it in India and 25 other countries, with over 1.9 crore students and more than 10 lakh teachers.The bylaws were first made in 1988 and were last modified in 2012.
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