The Chairman of Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), Vineet Joshi (centre), addressing the media at the Birla Public School (BPS) in Doha yesterday. Also seen are, Principal of BPS, A K Srivastava (left), and Director of Academics and Training at CBSE, Dr Sadhana Parashar. Salim Matramkot
DOHA: Indian schools in Qatar that have given a free hand to teachers to conduct private tuitions will face action, a senior official of the New Delhi-based Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) said yesterday.
CBSE chairman Vineet Joshi, who is on a visit to Qatar, also said he will take up the issue of low teachers’s salaries of affiliated schools here with their managements.
Joshi is in Doha to attend an orientation workshop for CBSE-i teachers at the Birla Public School (BPS). “CBSE has banned private tuitions since 2010. We will take action against any school that is found promoting this practice,” said Joshi, addressing a news conference at the BPS yesterday.
He was reacting to a special story published by The Peninsula earlier this week on the tuition menace in Qatar.
He, however, said CBSE can investigate the issue only if it receives a complaint.
The board has banned private tuitions mainly because it can have a negative impact on the quality of coaching in school.
“In most cases, parents insist on private tuitions to help children score higher marks. There is unhealthy competition in this regard. CBSE is actually trying to curb the race for marks,” said Joshi. He said the CBSE had introduced the grading and continuous evaluation system in Class X to eliminate the practice of ranking students based on marks.
He, however, added that there is no immediate plans to extend the grading system to Class XII.
The CBSE has not allowed schools to glorify the toppers while announcing examination results. If any school is doing this, it is against the CBSE rules and guidelines, said Joshi.
“We are planning to introduce an accreditation system for schools next year. All such unhealthy practices will be curbed once this system is introduced. The accreditation will allow us to monitor the performance of each school based on a set of criteria and those failing to meet the required standards will face action, including a cancellation of affiliation,” said Joshi.
CBSE is also planning to eliminate model questions for board examinations, as part of a new “open text assessment” system. This will force students to study the subject in full, instead of focusing on the “expected” examination questions.
The official said CBSE will not directly interfere in the fee structure of schools, but it will also not allow them to be run as “commercial establishments”.
“If we receive complaints about a clear discrepancy in the fees we will investigate it. No school is allowed to impose excessive fees for any service,” said Joshi.
He said the CBSE will look to complaints about the low salaries being paid to teachers of some Indian schools here.
“I will be meeting with principals and managements of all Indian schools this evening. Teachers’ salaries will be one of the issues to be discussed in the meeting,” said Joshi.
When pointed out that some Indian schools here have imposed very high fees for the CBSE-International (CBSE-i) curriculum, Joshi said: “There are differences in the facilities required for the national stream and the international stream. Schools can charge a higher fee based on this, but there are limits to that. Imposing excessive fees is not justified.”
He said the international stream was introduced mainly targeting overseas students giving the schools more flexibility in framing the curriculum, considering the specific requirements of each country.
