Dubai: India’s Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has done away with a rule mandating prior approval for the admission of students relocating from the UAE and other countries to CBSE schools in India.
The move follows the influx of students relocating from other countries to India, seeking admission in CBSE schools due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, India’s top education board said today.
Post-pandemic, many families are moving back to India because of various reasons. Therefore, many students studying abroad under foreign boards are joining schools affiliated with CBSE, the statement from CBSE said.
Currently, admissions to CBSE schools are granted to students of different boards based on the equivalency of classes between the CBSE and the students’ boards. “… Every time when students are shifting from foreign boards to CBSE, they are applying through the school to CBSE for approval to seek the admission in classes X and XII based on equivalency,” CBSE said.
Keeping in mind the current circumstances and problems faced by these students and their families, CBSE has decided that from now on, no prior approval will be required by the students, the board announced. “Hereinafter, admissions can be provided to the students by the schools without seeking any approval from CBSE.”
A list of equivalency of classes X and XII of foreign boards with similar classes of CBSE has been posted on the CBSE website, the board said. It added that a circular in this regard was issued earlier this week.
Welcome move
Dr Pramod Mahajan, principal of Sharjah Indian School, which is affiliated to CBSE, said it is “a welcome move — a step forward to help students, parents and the schooling process globally”. He said relocating students and families from the UAE and elsewhere, in the past, involved a long process and documentation. “This approval will support students from various international boards,” he said.
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Transfer certificates
“CBSE is working in 26 countries with more than 24,000 schools. Transfer of students from any of these schools to India did not require such approvals. However, they do need to get the school transfer certificate (TC) attested by the relevant government entities,” he added.
According to Dr Mahajan, though several Indian families in the UAE had flown back home with school transfer certificates for their children during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, most of them have returned and cancelled the TCs. “We are getting more students post-pandemic. Our [student] strength has increased post-pandemic,” he said.
