CBSE to approve new schools without site inspection

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will now grant approval to the proposals for the establishment of new schools without conducting any inspection of the sites.

The board has decided to leave it completely on the respective state governments to verify as to whether an applicant has the adequate land, infrastructure and other facilities, required for opening of a new school under the CBSE bye-laws, or not.

“The board will rely on the no-objection certificate to be issued by the states and grant approval to new schools. The CBSE will not conduct any site inspection,” Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters on here on Thursday.

This comes a year after the board made it mandatory for all applicants to submit the respective states no-objection certificate along with their applications for opening a new schools.

The board, however, still kept the provision for physical inspection of the proposed sites by its officials to verify as to whether the applicants fulfill all the conditions, required for opening new school under the CBSE bylaws or not.

“It was unnecessary and duplication of work. That's why it has been decided that the board will not conduct site inspection for verification of land, infrastructure and other things,” the Minister said.

The CBSE will conduct inspections of the schools only to check their academic quality and progress of their students, he added.

About 8,000 applications for approval of new schools, extension of approval to existing schools, approval to upgrade existing schools (from elementary to higher secondary, were pending with the CBSE since 2007 for verification.