Schools must renew affiliation, says CBSE

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) issued a circular Wednesday announcing that it had cancelled the practice of giving out permanent affiliations and asked schools that had such an association to apply afresh for next year’s academic session.

CBSE has 20,253 schools, of which 92 have permanent affiliation, according to its website. But these include some of Delhi’s most high-profile schools, such as the Delhi Public School branches in RK Puram and Mathura Road, the Laxman Public School, Air Force Bal Bharti and Mothers International.

Provisional certificates are provided for a period of three years and extended for another 5 years. Without an affiliation, a school cannot register its students for board exams.

An official involved with the decision said the move was meant to bring in greater accountability since all school administrations will now face regular scrutiny that is part of the affiliation renewal process.

“Many a times, we get to know about infrastructure issues related to schools when they come for affiliation. Safety of children is another major concern so permanent affiliation has been done away with. All the schools will now have to apply for provisional affiliation for the session 2019-20,” said the senior official on the condition of anonymity

The CBSE notified the related changes to its affiliation byelaws after its governing board ratified the affiliation committee’s recommendation recently.

“All schools affiliated permanently with the board will be considered as provisionally affiliated at par with other affiliated schools and will apply for extension of affiliation accordingly within the prescribed period with effect from the date of the issue of this notification,” the CBSE said in its notification dated January 3.

NEW DELHI: