January 17, 2010, 12:00 am
New Delhi: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in its recent circular to all its 10,000 plus affiliated schools has asked them to treat children sensitively and to stand by them in case of any "external pressure."
The New Year advisory from the chairman, Vineet Joshi came in to remind the schools that they are "ideological institutions and not factories"
"These must treat children as sensitive individuals who need to be protected at any cost," the circular added.
The incident of the Sacred Heart School in Chandigarh expelling Ruchika Girhotra for being a fee defaulter has indicted the statement from the CBSE saying, "No school, under the guise of enforcing discipline, should mistreat any student or parent thereof."
The chairman confirmed that the advisory has been issued to all the CBSE affiliated schools in a circular with a special pointer on "Child right issues."
"The schools need to be aware of the sensitive and impressionable nature of minds of school children and must ensure that all students, irrespective of their differences in physical, social, economic status or by their being differently abled are dealt with in a dignified manner. Adolescents are vulnerable to many influences and must be empowered to take informed decisions," said the circular.
The CBSE has been closely following Ruchikas case and is learnt to have examined all its records which has cause a concern over the "improper action" taken by the school authorities.
Talking about the recent issue of the implementation of Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) scheme, the CBSE has learnt that some schools are putting undue pressure on students by conducting the formative assessments/ tasks everyday, "Such schools would be minutely observed and assessed."
Cautioning the schools, the CBSE said that, "Following such a practice would again lead to stress leading to the student to behave in an unnatural way."
The board has also informed that all Class IX "summative" or end-of-the-year final exams under CBSE schools will be in multiple choice question format this year on.
source: http://www.indiaedunews.net/Today/CBSE_reminds_schools_to_be_%27ideological_institutions%2C_not_factories%27_10288/
