NISA opposes CBSE Class X result circular, says government exposing lakhs of teachers, school staff to deadly Covid-19
Writes to President of India to intervene, filed writ petition in Delhi High Court against CBSE circular
Representative Image. AMBALA: The National Independent Schools Alliance (NISA) has opposed the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) circular to constitute a result committee at schools and raised concern that by doing so, “the government is exposing lakhs of teachers, and supporting staff to deadly Covid-19.”
NISA has written to the President of India Ram Nath Kovind and sought his intervention, with the subject, “CBSE exposing lakhs of teachers & other school staff members of thousands of schools all over India to deadly infection of SARS CoV-2 (Covid-19) against all directions issued under Disaster Management Act, 2005.”
Similar letters have also been written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the chairperson of the National Disaster Management Authority and Union minister of women and child development Smriti Zubin Irani.
NISA highlighted that the CBSE on May 1, 2021, issued a circular directing the schools all over the country to constitute a Result Committee of eight members headed by the principal. NISA said that CBSE asked schools to open during lockdown calling the teachers/principal including all supporting staff exposing them to Covid-19 to make internal assessment of students for the purpose of declaring results of Class X CBSE board final examination.
CBSE vide its circular on April 14, 2021 had cancelled the Class X board external examination and later decided to declare the final result on the basis of internal assessments of marks based upon internal tests and half yearly examination, etc.
NISA president Kulbhushan Sharma said, “CBSE order also instructs the school management and the evaluation committee to refer to the last three years of results and internal tests, exams of the particular year. Though the CBSE has suggested doing an online process to evaluate, and without referring to the hardcopies of previous years’ data it is not possible to carry out an online process. The managements are thus forced to open their schools during lockdown asking those teachers and other supporting staff to visit schools exposing them to deadly infection of SARS CoV-2 against various directions of the Disaster Management Authority and its various constituent committees.”
About 2,067 teachers died of Covid-19
“As per reports, the states like New Delhi, Telangana, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh (UP) have recorded the teachers who died due to Covid-19. In total, we lost about 2,067 teachers in India from these states. The state of UP itself recorded 1,621 teachers died due to Covid-19”, reads the NISA prayer to President Kovind.
NISA alleged that, “The circular issued by CBSE is without the consultation of disaster management authority and in open defiance of guidelines issued by them.”
“After the issuance of notification of disaster on March 24, 2020 under Section 6(2) (i) of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 extended from time to time, no organization could organize any such gathering or movement of people….against guidelines….On resurgence of second wave of deadly virus, the Union Ministry of Health & Family Affairs on May 25, 2021, sent advisory to all states & UTs for declaring containment zones up to May 31, 2021 as per the areas infected”, reads the NISA letter.
“The whole dilemma of these thousands of unaided schools (to whom the present federation represents) is that if any management of a school does not constitute Result Committee then such management, as per this circular, could face disciplinary action of de-affiliation apart from the students of those schools shall suffer irreparable loss due to withholding of their results. Under such circumstances, the school is bound to compel the teachers to attend the school to make internal assessment of marks”, said Kulbhushan.
Kulbhushan said that the schools have already sent 20 per cent internal assessment to the CBSE and these could be taken into consideration as 100 per cent marks. He said this has already been adopted by several state boards like the Board of Tamil Nadu and Board of Telangana.
“…intervene to direct CBSE to reconsider its decision dated May 1, 2021 relating to Class X board examination results so as to save lakhs of teachers and other staff members including their family members from being exposed to Covid-19, apart from embarrassing the management of facing action under Disaster Management Act, 2005”, further reads the NISA letter to president.
NISA has written to the President of India Ram Nath Kovind and sought his intervention, with the subject, “CBSE exposing lakhs of teachers & other school staff members of thousands of schools all over India to deadly infection of SARS CoV-2 (Covid-19) against all directions issued under Disaster Management Act, 2005.”
NISA has also filed a writ petition against the CBSE circular in the Delhi High Court, and the court on May 13, directed NISA, "to file an additional affidavit regarding difficulties faced by teachers in schools in complying with the order (CBSE circular)." This case is now listed on May 25, 2021.
Similar letters have also been written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the chairperson of the National Disaster Management Authority and Union minister of women and child development Smriti Zubin Irani.
NISA highlighted that the CBSE on May 1, 2021, issued a circular directing the schools all over the country to constitute a Result Committee of eight members headed by the principal. NISA said that CBSE asked schools to open during lockdown calling the teachers/principal including all supporting staff exposing them to Covid-19 to make internal assessment of students for the purpose of declaring results of Class X CBSE board final examination.
CBSE vide its circular on April 14, 2021 had cancelled the Class X board external examination and later decided to declare the final result on the basis of internal assessments of marks based upon internal tests and half yearly examination, etc.
NISA president Kulbhushan Sharma said, “CBSE order also instructs the school management and the evaluation committee to refer to the last three years of results and internal tests, exams of the particular year. Though the CBSE has suggested doing an online process to evaluate, and without referring to the hardcopies of previous years’ data it is not possible to carry out an online process. The managements are thus forced to open their schools during lockdown asking those teachers and other supporting staff to visit schools exposing them to deadly infection of SARS CoV-2 against various directions of the Disaster Management Authority and its various constituent committees.”
About 2,067 teachers died of Covid-19
“As per reports, the states like New Delhi, Telangana, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh (UP) have recorded the teachers who died due to Covid-19. In total, we lost about 2,067 teachers in India from these states. The state of UP itself recorded 1,621 teachers died due to Covid-19”, reads the NISA prayer to President Kovind.
NISA alleged that, “The circular issued by CBSE is without the consultation of disaster management authority and in open defiance of guidelines issued by them.”
“After the issuance of notification of disaster on March 24, 2020 under Section 6(2) (i) of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 extended from time to time, no organization could organize any such gathering or movement of people….against guidelines….On resurgence of second wave of deadly virus, the Union Ministry of Health & Family Affairs on May 25, 2021, sent advisory to all states & UTs for declaring containment zones up to May 31, 2021 as per the areas infected”, reads the NISA letter.
“The whole dilemma of these thousands of unaided schools (to whom the present federation represents) is that if any management of a school does not constitute Result Committee then such management, as per this circular, could face disciplinary action of de-affiliation apart from the students of those schools shall suffer irreparable loss due to withholding of their results. Under such circumstances, the school is bound to compel the teachers to attend the school to make internal assessment of marks”, said Kulbhushan.
Kulbhushan said that the schools have already sent 20 per cent internal assessment to the CBSE and these could be taken into consideration as 100 per cent marks. He said this has already been adopted by several state boards like the Board of Tamil Nadu and Board of Telangana.
“…intervene to direct CBSE to reconsider its decision dated May 1, 2021 relating to Class X board examination results so as to save lakhs of teachers and other staff members including their family members from being exposed to Covid-19, apart from embarrassing the management of facing action under Disaster Management Act, 2005”, further reads the NISA letter to president.
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