THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Despite repeated warnings from authorities, a section of CBSE schools is indulging in several malpractices while registering students with the national board. Every year, students are registered with the CBSE when they reach Class IX and XI. The process of student registration is currently under way across the state. According to a source, there are two ways in which the malpractice is being carried out.
A school that has obtained affiliation from the CBSE will start unauthorised centres in the vicinity and admit students using the name of the parent school. Though the affiliation is granted only for a particular school that fulfils all affiliation parameters, the management illegally runs what is known as the ‘feeding centre’ nearby. When the students reach Classes IX and XI, they are registered with the CBSE as those belonging to the parent school.
Another kind of malpractice is carried out by schools that have not obtained recognition from the state government or affiliation from the CBSE. Such schools get their students registered through nearby affiliated schools against a ‘fee’. “A prominent school in the state capital is willing to register students on its rolls. But the management is demanding Rs 25,000 for each student,” a school manager told TNIE on condition of anonymity.
With uncertainty looming large over the affiliation status of his school, the manager said he is left with no choice but to get his students registered in this manner. It seems no lessons have been learnt despite the recent incident in which 29 students of a school in Ernakulam nearly missed this year’s CBSE Class X examination, as the institution was not affiliated to the board. The school had been registering its students through a nearby affiliated school for over six years.
Due to a dispute regarding the ‘fee’ charged per student for the malpractice, the affiliated school refused to admit students on its rolls the previous year. This landed the future of 29 students of the un-affiliated school in uncertainty ahead of this year’s board examination. However, the High Court later permitted the students to write the examination on humanitarian grounds.
Authorities have repeatedly advised parents to check the affiliation status of the school before admitting their children. The school’s affiliation number can be cross-verified with the national board’s website but most of the parents are unaware of it. In some cases, schools convince parents that their institution would get affiliation in due course. In the wake of widespread complaints, the then CBSE Regional Officer for Kerala and Lakshadweep had conducted surprise checks at schools and detected such malpractices in 2018. However, there are complaints that not enough follow-up is being done on this front.