With the affiliation system for schools going completely digital, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is planning to hold a series of webinars and training sessions to familiarise the institutions with the new process.
“CBSE has restructured the affiliation process under different categories of applications i.e. fresh affiliation, upgradation, extension of affiliation etc. To familiarise the schools with the new process and to resolve the queries of the schools, the Board will organise introductory webinars and training session from 9 to 13 March," said CBSE Secretary Anurag Tripathi.
“The registration process for the webinar shall commence from March 1 to 8 March 2021 on CBSE website. Interested schools can register themselves accordingly. The application for affiliation will be accepted tentatively from March 16," he added.
New affiliation system
The new system has been restructured as per various recommendations for systemic reforms laid down in the new National Education Policy (NEP).
“The restructuring will help in establishing ease of doing business in the CBSE affiliation system, attaining the goal of minimum government, maximum governance, automated and data-driven decisions, achieve transparency, bring more accountability in the entire systemic processes and achieve quick and time-bound disposal of all applications," Tripathi said.
“A detailed document on CBSE school affiliation system containing the re-structured online procedure for affiliation, required documents, modalities and Standard Operating Procedures for inspections, guidelines for inspection committee and videos for various processes will also be uploaded on CBSE website tentatively by Monday for perusal by schools. Schools may familiarise themselves with the manual prior to attending the online sessions," he added.
The board has also revised timelines for the application process as per the restructured system.
As per the revised timeline, every year the application window for fresh affiliation and upgradation of affiliation will open three times - 1 to 31 March, 1 to 30 June and 1 to 30 September.
Virtual inspection
The CBSE had introduced a facility for virtual inspection of schools for upgradation of affiliation in August last year in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The board is also in the process of setting up a facilitation centre to address queries and problems of schools and inspection committees related to the virtual inspection.
The board had revamped its norms in 2018 for granting affiliation to schools, leaving the onus of the infrastructural audit on states and limiting its own role to academic quality monitoring.
The CBSE has 24,930 schools affiliated to it across the country and abroad, with over 2 crore students and more than 10 lakh teachers. The affiliation by-laws were formulated in the year 1998.
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