Mandatory for schools to report all cases of short attendance to CBSE, board to take final call

All cases of short attendance of students will now have to be compulsorily reported to the CBSE by schools along with supporting documents and a final call on the same will be taken by the board in accordance with bye-laws.

According to board officials, an analysis of the result of 2019 indicated that students whose attendance had been condoned have performed poorly in the examinations prompting the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to prepare Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for dealing with students having short attendance.

Rule 13 of the Examination Bye-Laws of the Board specifies the attendance requirements for a student to be eligible to appear for the Class X and XII examinations of the CBSE while Rule 14 of the Examination Bye-laws states the percentage of attendance up to which it can be considered for condonation and the grounds for its consideration.

It was observed that students, parents and schools are not following rules strictly. While students were not submitting desired documents and certificates of the competent authority while seeking exemptions in attendance, schools are not sending all cases of shortage of attendance to the CBSE. As per analysis of the result of 2019 of the students whose attendance had been condoned have performed poorly in the examinations, a senior board official said.

The board has prepared SOPs for dealing with students having attendance less than the prescribed percentage of attendance for the information and compliance by schools, students and parents. Schools have been requested to communicate information and rule position to students and parents, the official said.

As per norms, the students can take exemption on account of prolonged illness, loss of mother or father or reasons of similar nature and authorised participating in sports in national and international level.

In all the cases, the schools will have to submit a request letter from the parent, certificate issued by authority concerned and recommendation of school concerned in the required proforma, the official said.

Every academic session, schools will have to compile the attendance date up to January 1 and identify cases of short attendance. The cases along with supporting documents will have to be sent to CBSE regional office by January 7. The regional offices will communicate any deficiency in documents to the schools and schools will have a deadline to comply by. Last date for according approvals by CBSE will be February 7 before examinations, the official added.