CBSE washes hands off 'dating' row

Hyderabad: A clarification from the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Thursday on its social media handle X thoroughly exposed its blatant irresponsibility.

The CBSE was forced to issue a clarification following reports that went viral flagging the content on 'dating and relationships' attributed to a book of the board.

According to CBSE, it is wrongly attributed a book to be a publication containing objectionable material on dating and relationships. ‘It is totally baseless and incorrect. The contents of the chapter which are going viral on social media are in fact from a book titled ‘A Guide to Self- Awareness and Empowerment’ written by Gagan Deep Kaur and published by G. Ram Books (P) Ltd. Educational Publishers. The board, facing criticism on several counts for its franchise mode of collecting money accord affiliations for schools, said, "The CBSE neither publishes any books nor recommends books of any private publishers."

Sirisha (name changed), a senior teacher of social sciences, who also takes classes on moral studies in a CBSE school, Nallagandla, that forms part of a chain of schools spread across the country, said, "teachers are under pressure from the school managements. Some schools have in-house curriculum development teams. Others, like ours, depend on publishers from Delhi who give best quotes for selling their books. It's business proposition that overrides any opinions tendered by teachers on the content. Teachers are helpless when it comes to deciding on the content and books."

Questioning the clarification, Pandari Nath (name changed), the principal of a CBSE school in Banjara Hills, said, "there might be difference of views on content of topics in a book.These days it is also important for schools to equip students of class 8 onwards in their adolescent years." Further, she said, "Yes, CBSE does not publish or prescribe any books. However, the catch is there are about 50-100 book publishing companies.

The book market that goes in the name of CBSE and ICSE runs into an annual turnover of hundreds of crores. "Several of them are prominent and are located in Mumbai and NCR dominating the market in publishing books claiming they are based on the syllabus prescribed by CBSE." This casts an obligation on the board to track and know what's going on in the name of someone claiming to publish a book based on a syllabus prescribed by it.

There are any number of rules and regulations that CBSE imposes on its affiliated schools. "A simple regulation of mandating all those publishing books claiming based on a syllabus prescribed by has to submit their books to the board would suffice. The board could prevent and blacklist book publishers taking schools, parents and students for a ride in the name of CBSE/ICSE books," he said.