CHENNAI: Justice N Kirubakaran of the Madras High Court has directed the CBSE to announce in newspapers and other media that stringent action would be taken against the institutions that do not follow the ‘no homework’ rule to class I and II school children. The judge gave a direction when a writ petition from advocate M Purushothaman seeking direction to the CBSE to follow only the NCERT-prescribed syllabus and books, came up for further hearing on Monday.
Earlier, the CBSE produced a copy of the circular which stated that the CBSE already issued similar circulars on September 15, 2004, and September 12, 2016, advising that there should not be any homework for students of classes I and II. As per the CBSE affiliation bylaws clause 3.3(C)-c, the CBSE-affiliated schools must satisfy the board’s advisories regarding ‘no school bag and no homework’ for the students up to class II, it added.
Further, in compliance with the directions of the High Court on May 29 last, it is once again reiterated that the schools may ensure that no homework is given in classes I and II. “It is also reiterated that since the NCERT is an academic authority for classes I-VIII, all schools may ensure that CBSE circular dated April 17, 2007 on reducing the bag load and homework on children is scrupulously followed,” it said.Recording the submission, the judge asked the counsel for CBSE about the mechanism they have to ensure that all the institutions implement the rule. To this the counsel said the CBSE would act whenever such violations were brought to its notice.
Refusing to accept the contention, the judge said, “People are considering the CBSE as a premier board, but it is unfortunate that you do not even have a system to check such violations. As you said, there are over 18,000 schools affiliated to the CBSE, but the board has the staff strength of only 1,200. With such a low staff strength, how would you ensure implementation of rules?,” Justice Kirubakaran said.
PIL plea to quash tender notice for smart classrooms
Chennai: A PIL petition has been filed in the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court to quash a tender notification, dated June 23 last, of the TN Text Book and Educational Service Corporation for establishing smart classrooms in the first phase in 3,000 government primary and middle schools in rural areas, hi-tech labs in 3,090 government high schools and 2,939 government higher secondary schools.
In his petition, Ernest De Prakash Livingston of Tirumalpuram in Madurai submitted that surprisingly the Text Book Corporation had been entrusted with the entire work of finalising the two tenders, bypassing the state-owned Electronics Corporation of TN. All companies were thrown out by fixing conditions which were suitable only for three private companies — L&T, Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) and Hewlett-Packard (HP), the petitioner contended.