Crackdown on fake ‘International’ schools, ETEducation
Maharashtra Directorate of Education moved to pull the plug on misleading school branding, warning self-financed state board schools against using labels such as “International” and “Global” without meeting the required norms. Schools that refuse to drop these titles will face regulatory action, the Directorate said in a circular issued this week.
The crackdown followed increasing complaints before the state-level education authority, which found that several state board-affiliated schools were projecting themselves as international or CBSE institutions, leaving parents and students confused and often misled.
“The issue came to light when we recently received a proposal seeking an NoC and approval from a self-financed school. We also received complaints. These are state board-affiliated schools and do not follow any international curriculum, so they cannot brand or project themselves as ‘International’ or ‘Global’. This is clearly misleading. We began verification, and this serves as a warning: schools must refrain from using such tags, and those already doing so must drop them. Action will be taken against violations,” said Mahesh Palkar, Director of School Education. Officials said many schools affiliated to the state board were freely using terms like International, Global, or CBSE in their names despite having no such affiliation whatsoever. In other cases, schools advertised themselves as English medium even though their official approval was strictly for Marathi medium. As per existing norms, schools can use the terms International or Global only if they have overseas branches and are affiliated to a recognised international board such as International Baccalaureate (IB) and Cambridge Assessment International Education (CAIE), including IGCSE.
The use of CBSE in a school’s name, officials stressed, is legally impermissible, as CBSE is the name of a statutory board, not a branding tag. “The misuse of such terminology has the potential to mislead parents, students and society, and may have adverse social consequences,” the circular notes. The issue was flagged during a recent meeting of the state-level authority that examines approvals for new self-financed schools and proposals for upgradation. The Directorate now made it explicit: proposals carrying misleading names will not be cleared, and existing schools will be asked to correct their titles or face action.
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