‘CBSE to stick to new NOC regulations’

CBSE Chairman Vineet Joshi said last year’s circular on schools seeking affiliation would be followed

“Our circular (on waiving requirement of No Objection Certificate for opening CBSE schools) is available on the website and we are following that circular in letter and spirit,” affirmed CBSE Chairman Vineet Joshi who was in the city recently.

Last year, CBSE had announced that a school recognised by the State government seeking provisional affiliation to the Board did not have to produce an NOC from the concerned State education department, except in specific cases.

Speaking to The Hindu on the sidelines of the valedictory function of ‘Parvatotsavam’, an inter-school competition and exhibition celebrating mountains organised by the Sri Kanchi Mahaswami Vidya Mandir on Saturday, Mr. Joshi discussed a host of issues spanning increase in the number of CBSE schools, corresponding quality control, importance of in-service training and effective implementation of Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation system.

He noted that the number of CBSE schools across the country has gone up in the past 3-4 years. “Between 800 to 900 CBSE schools are added across the country in a year,” he said.

When asked about how they would ensure quality to correspond with the growth in the number of schools, he said that they had introduced an accreditation process, similar to that conducted by National Assessment and Accreditation Council. “Within three years, all CBSE schools will have to get accredited. And every five years, they will go in again for the process. Around 14-15 schools have already completed accreditation on a pilot basis and 300-plus schools have applied,” he said.

CBSE made the class X Board examination optional. However, according to the CBSE regional office, close to 77 per cent of students in Tamil Nadu opted for the Board-based examination over the school-based examination in class X last year. Mr. Joshi said that one of the reasons could be the tendency among students in the State to switch boards after class X. “Our data from last year shows that the students who took the school-based examination fared better in terms of averages and number of students in the high-mark range, among other aspects,” he said.

He said that once the final examinations are over, they would have a meeting with schools in the city to get feedback on the first Open Text-Based Assessment to be held for classes IX and XI this year, and then, take a call on whether to introduce it for classes X and XII.