International schools to be defined soon

Updated on: Monday, April 30, 2012

The Central government is coming up with a set of rules and regulations to define an international school, said, Jose Aikara, Chairman, Council for Indian School Certificate Examination (ICSE). The standardisation is essential to regulate the increasing number of schools with the tag ‘international' to them. The rules would define criterion such as ‘percentage of international students', ‘infrastructure facilities offered', ‘syllabi followed' and ‘accreditation', Mr. Aikara added.

In the city to participate in the annual symposium organised by Vaels International School here on Friday, Mr. Aikara said the Council is getting more “management, principal and student-friendly”. “So far, the affiliation process has been very lengthy and time consuming. Now, the Council will have it cleared within a month, provided the management cooperates,” he said, adding that the process would even be introduced online.

Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the symposium, Mr. Aikara said, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka were the states that had the maximum number of schools affiliated to the Council.

“Currently, over 1,900 schools are affiliated to the Council and we are getting many applications from across the country,” said Mr. Aikara, who is also the principal of De Paul International Residential School and Junior College, Mysore. Tamil Nadu has around 125 ICSE schools and is also witnessing a growing interest.

When asked if Council was considering doing away with class X Board examinations like the CBSE, Mr. Aikara said the Council was considering that but would wait and watch after consulting with school heads.

Speaking about the Right to Education Act, he said, “the Council cannot come as a party”, but expects all its schools to follow the State's directions as per the Act.

With regard to following the fee prescribed by the Private Schools Fee Determination Committee, he said the Council would not interfere unless it received complaints but wanted schools to abide with the fees stipulated.

Chairman of Vel's Group of Institutions Isari K.Ganesh and V. Venkatachalam, Dean, Vel's Group of Schools and other school heads participated in the event.

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