Principals have a key role in education
School principals have a pivotal role in driving the schools to excellence by bringing all stakeholders in child development on the same page,said Dr. Joseph Emmanuel,secretary Central Board of Secondary School (CBSE).
He led an interactive session with principals:
Listed below are the most significant concerns and queries that came up from the Principals and the CBSE Secretary’s reply to these questions:
Question: Delay in receiving affiliation renewal orders, in spite of duly submitting all the documents seeking affiliation renewal, well in advance.
Answer: In all eligible cases, renewal orders will be issued in a couple of months. All fresh applications for renewal received by the month of January, will be considered during the academic year 2018-19.
Question: Delay in receiving class X and XII Board Exam certificates and print errors like ‘Malyalam’ for ‘Malayalam’.
Answer: The matter will be looked into.
Question: Handicap being faced by CBSE stream students when they seek higher secondary admission in State Board schools, due to lower weightage accorded to CBSE students.
Answer: Students are advised against changing the stream to State Board after class X as the Senior Secondary Programme is built into school education. If at all any parent wants to switch to the State Board or any other Board, it should be done well in advance while the child is in lower classes.
Question: Regarding value education assessment.
Answer: All value education assessments should be done as part of Formative Assessment and not separately under any circumstance.
Question: Regarding insufficient frequency, lack of timely availability or non-availability of mentoring and monitoring support.
Answer: The matter will be looked into.
Question: Regarding different schools following different text books for classes 1 to 8, with the risk of unethical practices in choosing text books creeping in.
Answer: All schools are advised to follow NCERT prescribed text books for classes 1 to 8 as well. Any other books should be considered only if they are fully in conformity with NCERT pattern.
Question: Regarding the recently issued Child Rights Act stricture, not to unduly burden children and to ensure that Saturday is a holiday for classes till 5.
Answer: CBSE is yet to decide on the question of Saturday holiday. However, the law of the land should be followed without diluting the CBSE norm of 220 mandatory working days for classes 1 to 12.
Dr Manulal, Advisor CBSE Centre of Excellence, Kochi who is the key resource person for the workshop spoke on the occasion. Dr Deepa Chandran, training resource person shared the dais. Fr. John Mannarathara, Principal Silver Hills Public School, Calicut delivered the welcome address while Ms Sheela Varghese, Principal Sacred Hart National School, Calicut expressed
vote of thanks.
