Case Study I: How to Start a New CBSE School?
A school is a place that strives in building a better and healthy society by grooming children to become productive members of the society. As it is often said, “A school is home away from home”, the school helps students to learn and grow together. Schools in India have unending demands which make more people come forward to establish new schools. However, establishing a new school and running it is a long-winded process.
Establishing a school in India is not just about setting up an infrastructure that comprises classrooms, laboratories and libraries. It needs procurement of licenses and permissions from relevant authorities for the development of a school.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is a most popular, well established and one of the oldest boards in the Indian education system. CBSE is a self-financing body and if any school wishing to get affiliated to the board has a set of norms that needs to be followed. If it is a newly established or already an existing school, CBSE has set certain norms that need to be followed by the schools that apply for the affiliation. Establishing a CBSE school from the very beginning guarantees quality education and full support of the CBSE Board.
How to start a CBSE school?
- Eligibility: Not every school is eligible to get affiliation. The board would provide affiliations to
- Government or Government aided schools run by autonomous organizations which would be controlled by the government.
- Private educational institutions which are recognized by the state government.
- Society religious institutions which are included in the Bye-laws of the board.
- Unaided schools
Only these schools are eligible to get CBSE affiliation. Then one must decide how they are going to run the school; whether as a local school or adopting a Franchise.
- Form a Trust: Any individual or organization or entity willing to open a school needs to create a society or trust, along with a governing board that has five to six members. As schools in India are Not-For-Profit organizations, the administration should be vested with Not-For-Profit trust/society as per the law. The profit derived from the school should be used for the Educational Institute and not for personal use.
- Land Purchase: If an organization wants to buy a land from the government, it must submit a No Objection Certificate (NOC) which is referred to as Essentiality Certificate (EC) from the concerned state’s Department of Education. It should be taken care that the area in which the society is willing to build a school should have a proper balance of schools and they do not end up competing with each other. NOC ensures that the school should be built within 3 years from permission. In case the society fails to do, it has to reapply for the EC again.
In case the organization owns a land and wants to build a school over there, then that particular individual should apply for an NOC from the concerned state’s Department of Education. The applicants should mention the reason why they want to set up a school in that area in the application for NOC.
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- Registration: The land on which you are willing to build your school has to be either purchased or leased in the name of the society or trust. The land needs to be purchased based on the requirements of the board. Central Board Of Secondary Education (CBSE), State government boards and the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) in their list of assigned rules state that schools should have a playground.
- Construction: Once the land is registered, create a business plan and start working on it. Make arrangements for the adequate capital required for the construction of the school by availing loans from financial institutes, banks, and others sources. Start constructing the school as per the norms of CBSE.
- Start the school: Once you are completed with the infrastructure, apply for further approvals from the Educational Department, Health Department, Municipal Corporation and others. You can now proceed with staff recruitment as per the norms of CBSE. Follow the guidelines set by CBSE for curricula, textbooks and salaries paid to the teachers. Advertise and market for admissions into school by promoting it through online and offline channels.
- Apply for recognition: Apply for recognition from the state government. Go to the District Education Officer (DEO) and register your school followed by an inspection. Post inspection of the school premises and taking relevant information, a required certification is provided to the society.
- Get CBSE affiliation: In order to get considered for CBSE affiliation, it is mandatory to get an affiliation from a state board. Apply to the state government for NOC to apply to CBSE. Schools must apply for the NOC document in their respective states to apply for CBSE affiliation.
- Apply to CBSE for affiliation: After you receive the necessary documentation from the state governments apply to the Central Board of Secondary Education for affiliation by 30th June of the session in which the school starts grade VIII. The school should be granted permission to start grade IX and these classes should not be started without prior affiliation with the board. When the school starts Grade X, apply to CBSE again for up gradation of the school till Senior Secondary.
