June 24, 2013, 12:00 am
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE)says that it is mandatory to every student to have their own Unique Identity Number (UID) if they want to participate in interschool sports ompetition. The UID has to be generated online by schools using their login and password on a special page created within the board’s website.
The UID is not ’game-specific’ but a generic one, which allows the student to participate in every competition organized by the board across the country. The schools will print the UID card, which will have the student’s photograph, and attest it with principal’s signature. The UID will be a permanent one and won’t change even if the student shifts to a new school. The UID will remain with the student till he/she moves out of the CBSE system.
The decision is part of a broader set of initiatives taken by the board’s sports department in an effort to streamline its operations. The upcoming academic session will be the first time CBSE participates in the national games organized by the School Games Federation of India (SGFI) in an independent category. Earlier, CBSE students would participate as part of the state team where their schools are domiciled.
With the independent status being given to CBSE, Maharashtra state has banned CBSE students from participating in the local district sports office (DSO) games.
Though officially the CBSE does not say so, it does seem that its aggressive push to revamp its sports department has resulted from the SGFI decision. To prepare its own team for the games, the board needs to pick from within its affiliated schools the best sportsperson, and the basis for the selection is almost sure to be the annual Inter-School Sports & Games Competition (ISSGC).
The first step taken by the board to streamline operations is to get schools, which are willing to host the games, registered online. The board sent a circular on June 19 mentioning clearly that it proposes to "recognize and felicitate all such principals and the organizing secretaries that in future shall organize the ISSGC at any of the levels for their contribution for the promotion of sports and games". The felicitation promise by board is clearly an incentive given to encourage schools for hosting the games.
The board has also banned host schools from communicating with other schools within their zones/clusters regarding the competition.
CBSE says every school will get the required information through the sports portal, again a clear move by the board to streamline the process.
