After a nationwide inspection drive, CBSE cracks down on 20 errant schools based on the complaints recieved
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) recently de affiliated 20 schools and down graded three schools after finding out that they were involved in malpractices and were not complying with the affiliation and examination guidelines. For this, the CBSE will be relying on Al and data analysis to accurately identify the schools in future that are not following the guidelines.
This year, action was taken based on the complaints received by the CBSE, which prompted it to conduct inspections across the schools. The inspection drives disclosed the rise of dummy schools where fictitious students were admitted to inflate the performance metrics. Several of these schools admitted ineligible candidates who did not fulfil the admission criteria, while a few of them had poor infrastructure, lacked proper student records and the teachers too were not on the payroll.
The CBSE has recently introduced Al tools to analyse school data to control the discrepancies during the board exams. The tools have helped in identifying the schools registering dummy students. The Board is analysing the data of the previous year's average students enrolled in each school, which helps in identifying the number of dummy students. The difference between the number of students in classes X and XII will also help to identify and pinpoint malpractices in these schools. We have the database of previous years' averages of classes X and XII. If we see a sudden spike in the number of students, we will be able to identify unethical practices. We will then plan for surprise inspections in the coming years
schools were given time to comply, and their documents were checked before taking g action against them. The CBSE would be conducting more such inspections in the future. If we find any functional dummy schools, we will take stern action and de-affiliate those schools, says Gupta. Legally, the errant schools have a choice to re apply for affiliation, but now, the CBSE would be very careful when granting reaffiliation. These schools were having insufficient infrastructure, dummy students, and many of their teachers were not on the payroll, says Gupta, adding that the interests of the students at such affected schools will be safeguarded. We will get the students registered in the near- by schools and other opportunities will be provided to them,
Due to rationalisation of the syllabus, there is a learning gap as courses for competitive exams are not aligned with NCERT-prescribed syllabi. This is another reason for the mushrooming of coaching centres. Several pаrents remove their children from regular schools after class X and admit them in dummy schools, which does not demand the mandatory 75% attendance, conducting practical classes, etc,says Acharya, who was also part of the inspection team.
The CBSE move will create awareness among parents who decide for the students. "This measure will be a deterrent for other dummy schools. Strict action should be taken against all dummy schools encouraging unethical practices. The CBSE inspected after several schools complained to the authority that good schools were losing out on students to dummy schools post the completion of class X. The errant schools can re apply after taking necessary corrective measures for fresh affiliation.
published on 01/07/2024
Education Times
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