Overlap of coaching classes, school hours under Chandigarh education dept lens

UT director school education Harsuhinderpal Singh Brar is set to hold a meeting with all coaching centres of the city this week, amid complaints from parents that coaching centres are holding classes during school hours. This also comes after a recent circular by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) for not allowing students from dummy schools to appear in the board exams from this session onwards.

Speaking about this, Brar said, “Since the academic session has just started, I am glad some parents have brought this to my notice. Coaching centres cannot hold classes during school hours as per guidelines issued by the Union ministry of education. We will hold a meeting and I will give one last warning to the coaching centres. Any further violations will lead to action against the centres.”

While authorities have not named the school or coaching, a similar incident came to light against Stepping Stones School, Sector 37 and FIITJEE last year but the department is yet to act against it. Action against coaching centres, however, is rare. Even after the inspection by Chandigarh Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (CCPCR) in November last year regarding a coaching centre being run at a school premises during its working hours, the department is yet to take any action in this case.

Speaking about the CBSE’s decision of not allowing the students from dummy schools to appear in the board exam from next year, CBSE regional officer Rajesh Gupta said, “We will closely monitor the schools in the region to ensure that such dummy admissions aren’t taking place. The students will not be allowed to give the boards in such cases,” he added. He said that they haven’t received any formal complaints about dummy schools this session till now. Usually, it’s just anonymous complaints, which sometimes are also false.

Regarding the incident in November, Gupta said that a report of the incident was submitted to the affiliation unit of CBSE and they had issued a show cause notice to the school.