August 11, 2018

Petitioner exposes alleged nexus between schools & private publishers, informs Court that General Knowledge book prescribed for Class II, includes exercises in which children had to identify picture of famous film personalities including Salman Khan & Katrina Kaif.

Today, the Madras High Court pulled up the CBSE for not issuing a circular to all affiliated schools to implement the Court's recent order banning homework for students of classes I & II.

"The Central Board of Secondary Education hasn't understood the seriousness of this case & the directions issued by the court. CBSE authorities think they're like CBI but that is not so," Justice N Kirubakaran said.

He said the CBSE secretary should appear in the court if the circular wasn't issued by 17th August.

The HC also directed the appearance of education secretaries of Tamil Nadu & Puducherry if they failed to respond to a circular issued by the central govt. in connection with the no homework rule by that date.

Justice Kirubakaran passed the direction on a petition by advocate M Purushothaman, seeking a direction to the CBSE to follow only NCERT-prescribed syllabus & books.

In an interim order issued on 29th May, the Judge had directed the Centre to instruct state govts to reduce weight of satchels of school children & do away with homework for classes I & II.

He had also said the use of National Council for Educational Research and Training(NCERT) books be made mandatory.

However, in a subsequent hearing, the CBSE had informed the Court that it would implement the no homework order. But the board had also said it had filed an appeal against all other orders, including the direction on use of NCERT books.

When the matter came up for hearing today, the CBSE submitted that the circular on homework was yet to be issued, following which the Judge expressed his displeasure.

Petitioner Purushothaman alleged that there was a nexus between the private book publishers, CBSE authorities & private CBSE schools.

"That's reason why they didn't move appeal against the Delhi HC order which said schools can prescribe to books of private publishers. But the authorities have moved an appeal against the order of this court which prohibited books of private publishers," he charged.

Seeking to expose the quality of books published by private firms, he produced a copy of the GK book prescribed by a private CBSE school in the city for Class II, saying that in an exercise children had to identify picture of famous film personalities including Salman Khan & Katrina Kaif.

"What general knowledge they try to inculcate by giving such exercises!?" the Petitioner asked.

Related news:

High Court bans homework for Class I & II students & mandates light school bags

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