CBSE schools should follow only the NCERT prescribed subjects – Madras high court

CBSE schools should follow only the NCERT prescribed subjects and no additional subjects should be included in the curriculum, the Madras high court said.

"It is not known when the NCERT has prescribed only limited subjects to young children, how the CBSE allows its affiliated schools to have more subjects for the students," Justice N Kirubakaran wondered while hearing a plea moved realated to this subject.

As per the petition – NCERT syllabus prescribed only three subjects for Class I under CBSE – mother tongue, English and mathematics; however in practice, the Class I children are forced to study up to eight subjects, including computer science, general knowledge and Hindi.

NCERT has also specifically stated that schools should not give homework to children of Class I and II; again in reality, these rules are flouted and homework is made compulsory not only in CBSE but also in state boards, he added. 

Advertisement

Taking note of the submission, Justice Kirubakaran insisted that the board had a mechanism to make inspections and verify whether schools are following NCERT syllabus. To this the board said they had no financial assistance to implement the Acts enacted by the central and state governments. The judge directed the assistant solicitor general to get instructions from the central government and inform the court by March 27.