No coaching business on premises: CBSE to schools

Aditi Tandon 
|Tribune News Service 
New Delhi, August 20

The CBSE has issued a circular to its affiliated schools warning them against running commercial activity from their premises.

The circular covers around 20,000 CBSE affiliated schools after the Board received evidence and complaints that several schools were running parallel coaching centres on their premises during school hours to prepare students for entrance and competitive exams.

The CBSE has taken a stern view of the trend and reminded schools of the Board Affiliation bylaws of 2018 that bar any such commercial activity in affiliated schools. The bylaws give the Board the power to disaffiliate a defaulting school.

A CBSE source said the circular was issued after complaints regarding certain schools allowing coaching centres to run and certain others running parallel classes over and above school curriculum classes to coach students for medical, engineering and other entrance tests. As many as two crore students are enrolled with around 20,700 CBSE affiliated schools.

The trend of coaching centres coming up in school premise is recent. There have been cases where children have enrolled in schools at later stages in higher secondary classes through a coaching centre which has an arrangement with the said school. 

Not only is commercialisation prohibited on school compounds under CBSE rules, private tuition by teachers is also barred by the Right to Education Act which says no school teacher can engage in private coaching.

CBSE bylaws require every affiliated school to earmark daily and annual teaching hours to carry out the instruction of approved school syllabus. No parallel classes can be held in schools as per existing regulations.