The Department of School Education is in a bind, unable to control the increasing trend of Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) schools using the tag ‘international’.
Very many managements are indeed using the tag ‘international’ with impunity, with the intention of misleading parents, Chief Education Officer P. Ayyannan acknowledged.
The managements are using the tag with the apparent motive of levying hefty fee from a large section of parents with wherewithal looking for exclusivity of education of their wards, without bothering to check adherence to norms by the institutions, officials said.
The education department had to intervene recently and issue caution to parents against admitting their wards in a so-called ‘international’ school functioning out of a marriage hall with bare facilities at a remote location in Bhavani Sagar. But, there are several other schools with the ‘international’ tag that are not so bad, but woefully fall short of the requirements.
The Council for Indian School Certificate Examination has been exhorting the Central Government to come up with rules and regulations defining an international school for standardisation.
According to a school correspondent who preferred anonymity, many managements were making a mockery of the tag ‘international’. An education consultant concurred with the view saying that the managements have been emboldened to use the tag ‘international’ after the CBSE had, a few years back, launched CBSE-i (International), with the idea of providing a globally sensitive curriculum for enabling Indian learners pursue higher studies in other countries.
CBSE-i
The Association of Indian Universities had accorded equivalence to CBSE-i with the condition of infusing core skills in mathematics and science education. The CBSE-i provides opportunities for research orientation, social empowerment through work and action, and a more liberal approach towards arts education.
Existing CBSE schools were made eligible to apply for CBSE-i, subject to a set of conditions pertaining to infrastructure, faculty and students. Importantly, there is a column in the proforma that requires the management to furnish particulars about the number of teachers and students from different countries with details. Leave alone foreign teachers, in seven out of 10 schools, teachers struggle to converse in English with students, the consultant said.
The role of the Department of School Education of the State Government is confined to granting no objection certificate for Central Board schools.
Inspections by experts of Central Boards being rare, the section of schools with unscrupulous managements has none to question their practice of taking parents for a ride, local-level officials lamented.
