In a communication sent to schools, CBSE said, "It has been noticed that in spite of provisions under the Right To Education (RTE) Act, 2009, and affiliation bye- laws, the appointment of teachers with prescribed procedures and qualifications, service condition of the teachers, their professional development and mechanism for redressal of their grievance are not adhered to by some schools,"
"A number of complaints have been received against affiliated schools alleging payment of partial salary, delay in disbursement of salary and allowances, promotion and non- availability of welfare measures for teachers, retaining the teachers after schools hours and engaging them in non- education activities," it read.
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The board further said schools must frame service rules and conditions and ensure appointment of teachers and others as per the RTE Act and CBSE guidelines.
In other news, CBSE has decided to continue with the moderation policy to remove confusion in different sets of question papers and offer a level playing field in the evaluation process.
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Besides, the board has decided to develop model sample question papers for all the boards to ensure uniformity in the papers of various boards. And the awarded grace marks will be mentioned in the mark sheets of students.
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Private schools in Odisha are engaged in commercial activities like sale of uniforms and books, and parents are forced to buy these things from the institutions at exorbitant prices, says report.
Earlier this week, a man was allegedly thrashed by staff of a privately-run school, Deepika English Medium School, located in Sector-5 in Rourkela for opposing sale of uniforms on the premises of the educational institution.
The incident came to fore after a video footage of the attack on the man went viral.
On being asked, the man said the staff beat him after he opposed the sale of such products inside the school premises as it was against the laid norms of CBSE. However, the school staff allegedly beat him up.
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After getting information, the local Tehsildar rushed to the spot to take a stock of the situation. He rescued the injured man and seized a vehicle laden with books. Besides, he locked a room of the school filled with uniforms.
Similarly, CBSE has directed schools to use NCERT books for the students from Class 1 to 8. But schools here are using books from their own publication.
Nitish Barik, whose child is a student of Balasore DAV School, told OTV that the school authorities are forcing parents to buy books from their publication. “We reminded them about the CBSE guidelines but they blatantly denied,” he said.
A staff of the school, Akhandal Nayak, also admitted to using of DAV publication books.
It is worth mentioning that the CBSE had issued an advisory to all its affiliated schools to not to indulge in commercial activities by way of selling of books, stationary, uniforms, school bags and others and strictly mentioned to adhere to the provisions of “Affiliation Bye-Laws of the Board”.
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The board had also released a circular warning the schools not to force students and parents to buy books other than NCERT/CBSE. However, schools are flouting all the norms at will without any impediment.
The directions came after the killing of a seven-year-old boy at a Gurgaon school and the rape of a five-year-old girl at a school in Delhi, incidents which sparked national outrage.
Following the incidents, the CBSE had issued new security-related guidelines to schools while putting the onus on them for safety of students on their premises.
Singh was speaking at a meeting with officials from various schools here. He also directed them to send their staff for a training session tomorrow.
Singh also directed the schools to appoint a vigilance officer, a medical officer and a safety officer by September 30.
Besides these steps, Singh stressed that all schools should have CCTV surveillance systems which should be operational round the clock.
To deal with the requests for subject change in classes 10 and 12, CBSE has framed Standard Operating Procedures for schools.
According to CBSE, classes 10 and 12 are a two-year course. Schools are expected to counsel students into opting subjects in classes 9 and 11 which they would like to continue in the next class and are available in the school.
"Several students want to change subjects when they move to class 10 and 12 on various grounds. As per revised norms, any request for change of subjects will be accepted provided such a request has been made before July 15 of the academic session. In order to streamline the process, the board has framed SOPs for the purpose," PTI quoted a senior CBSE official as saying.
"In no manner, any request to change the subjects that parents will make their own arrangement of study will be accepted by CBSE. Now, almost all the subjects have internal assessment and schools need to provide the performance in internal assessment of students," the official added.
As per the SOPs of the Board, a student needs to submit an official request to school along with supporting documents justifying the reason behind his/her move. Following this, the school will decide whether the request is genuine or not and whether the subject is available in the school.
The Board has also asked schools not to deviate from the direction.
It is worth mentioning that CBSE had in March 2018, said that to facilitate the students who are participating in International Sports Events and studying in CBSE affiliated schools in Class X or XII for the purpose of appearing in the Board's examination.
The decision was taken as part of the initiatives taken by the Government of India to promote sports amongst youth.
Now, to further promote sports, CBSE has decided to extend this facilitation to students of all classes where their Board examinations coincide with their participation in any National/International Sports event including dates of journey for that event that is recognized by Sports Authority of India and the student will be representing India.
For such students, their examination will be conducted at a later stage as decided by CBSE, a release of the Board read while releasing Standard Operating Procedure (SOPs) for all such students.
A Look at the Details of the SOPs
The Board further notified that in no case such candidates will be permitted to appear along with the compartment exam as the compartment examination is conducted only for those candidates who got compartment in the main examination.
CBSE has framed Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for schools to deal with the requests for subject change in class 10 and class 12. According to a relese of the Board, classes 10 and 12 are a two-year course, hence, schools are expected to counsel students into opting subjects in classes 9 and 11 which they would like to continue in the next class and are available in the school.
"Several students want to change subjects when they move to class 10 and 12 on various grounds. As per revised norms, any request for change of subjects will be accepted provided such a request has been made before July 15 of the academic session. In order to streamline the process, the board has framed SOPs for the purpose," PTI quoted a senior board official as saying.
"In no manner, any request to change the subjects that parents will make their own arrangement of study will be accepted by CBSE. Now, almost all the subjects have internal assessment and schools need to provide the performance in internal assessment of students," the official added.
As per the SOPs, a student or parent is supposed to submit an official request to school along with documents supporting the reason behind the move.
"The schools need to analyse whether the request for subject change is genuine and what was the performance of the student in classes 9 and 11 and whether the child is unable to cope up.
"The schools also need to consider whether the new subject requested is available in school, selected combination of subjects is valid as per the scheme of studies and the school has affiliation in respect of that subject from affiliation unit or from skill education unit in case of skill subjects," the official said.
Schools have been directed to compile all such requests and send to regional offices of CBSE.
"Schools also need to ensure they are not deviating from the directions. If in any case it is found that instructions have not been followed, CBSE will reject the request for which school will be responsible," the official added.
In a recent circular, the board has asked all its affiliated schools to shut down the coaching centres that are being run inside the school premises.
Sources said, the CBSE took the move after it got some evidence and complaints regarding the functioning of coaching centres inside the premises of schools during school hours in order to prepare students for various entrance and competitive examinations like medical and engineering.
It may be noted that as per the Board Affiliation bylaws of 2018, CBSE bars commercial activities in its affiliated schools. The bylaw also empowers the CBSE to disaffiliate any school, if it is found violating the laws.
The CBSE also bars private tuitions by teachers and also prohibits school teachers to engage in private coaching.
It is evident that such coaching classes inside schools with hamper classroom activities and it will also play negative impact on the students as they will not get enough time to make a balance between their classroom and personal lives, believe educationists.
A recent report by NITI Aayog raised an alarm that 21 cities in India including Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Hyderabad, will run out of groundwater by 2020, affecting around 100 million people.
According to water conservation guidelines framed by the board for its affiliated schools, the schools will be required to replace old fixtures and appliances with water-efficient models, install automatic taps with sensors and double flush tanks on priority, ensuring regular check-ups for leakages and their prompt fixing,
"Becoming a water efficient school is hardly a choice anymore. Therefore, it will now be mandatory for all affiliated schools to achieve the goal of becoming a water efficient school within the next three years. The hallmark of a water-efficient school would not only be reflected in infrastructure but also majorly in the manner of use of water by school stakeholders and their sensitivity towards water conservation," a senior CBSE official said.
"While schools use a tremendous amount of water every day and require water for drinking purposes, restrooms, canteens, laboratories, outdoor for playing fields, lawns and gardens; it must be understood that conserving water helps to reduce a school's carbon footprint," the official added.
Defining being a water-efficient school as an "institutional responsibility", the CBSE has asked schools to constitute a "school water management committee" that may include administrators, teachers, students, non-teaching staff, parents and even a few members from the community.
"The committee would be responsible for efficient use of water in the school, periodic reviews and monitoring water usage to check for wastage and inefficiency and adoption of water conservation measures.
"The schools will also be required to conduct water audits which will help to set benchmarks and prepare a water efficiency plan, identify infrastructure improvements and better irrigation practices for green spaces in the school besides monitoring habits, practices and processes of school personnel's water usage," the official explained.
Installing rainwater harvesting structures, planting native and drought-tolerant plants and replacing old fixtures, are among suggestions made about the adoption of a policy of water management.
The board has also recommended increasing water literacy among students, expanding current teaching on water topics and organising water conservation education workshops besides student visits to water treatment plants.