CBSE Schools: Maharashtra Education Commissioner Suraj Mandhare announced on January 10, 2023 (Tuesday) that ‘No Objection Certificates’ (NOCs) of schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in the state will be cross-verified to check if they are genuine or fake.
Moreover, Mandhare made the verdict after it was revealed that various schools in Pune are functioning as CBSE-affiliated institutions without the required NOCs approved by the government. The officials further stated that the Pune police have begun an investigation as per the orders by the state School Education Department.
As per the reports, Education Commissioner Mandhare said that there are as many as 2,000 schools in Maharashtra state which are affiliated with the CBSE. Also, the current case relates to obtaining forged NOCs for CBSE affiliation from the Maharashtra government. The government will now look into the matter and has laid out instructions to verify all the NOCs granted to CBSE-affiliated schools to find out whether they are regulating legally or not.
CBSE Schools Inquiry
Initially, the schools will be taken into the government’s possession and will go through detailed checking whether it has been issued by the Maharashtra government or it is someone’s wilful and illegitimate act. Once the inquiry is complete, the state government will decide on a further course of action.
An FIR was registered against unknown persons at Samarth police station in Pune on January 10, 2023 (Monday) late at night by Sunanda Wakhare who is the Education Officer in the Secondary Education Department of Pune, Zilla Parishad.
The police reported that schools are required to acquire the NOCs as approved by the state government’s School Education Department. It has been noticed by the department that several schools in Pune were functioning with the CBSE curriculum as well although no NOCs were issued to them. A close inspection is required for the matter as subsequently ordered by the department.
UDISE System for CBSE Schools
As per a complaint filed by Wakhare concerning the fake NOCs in Pune before July 14, 2022, 3 schools have been named and the probe has been initiated. The education commissioner has instructed his department to check over 666 schools across Maharashtra that have not yet mentioned the government approval number as part of their data on the Uniform District Information System for Education (UDISE).
This is the largest management information system implemented by the Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education, where data is being collected on various parameters that range from examination results, infrastructure and enrollments, among others.
Mandhare, the state education commissioner also told that they had complete data of 1.10 lakh schools. However, about 666 schools whose data related to the government approval number is missing on the online portal. This aspect will be verified and confirmed. It is possible that schools may still have to upload data. The probability of a fabricated one is also not being dismissed but it is too early to comment as the investigations are underway.
When the senior officials contacted the principal of a top CBSE-affiliated school, the principal claimed that there has been a huge demand for so many years for seeking affiliation of the board. The principal also pointed out that this is mainly because the CBSE follows the National Council of Educational Research and Training curriculum which is the basis for most of the competitive examinations for instance JEE/NEET and so on managed centrally by the government.
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