The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has reiterated the guidelines regarding the student count in each section from Classes 1 to 12 in schools.
Ideally, each section is to comprise 40 students, in order to ensure a conducive learning environment where students receive better attention from teachers. However, the recent guidelines say that under certain conditions, schools can take in up to 45 students.
According to a report by News18, this comes in response to the requests pushed by many schools – prompting CBSE to bring in some flexibility in its earlier guidelines.
CBSE now specifies that exceptions can be made for up to 45 students under special circumstances. Here are the conditions:
Parent transfer: If a child’s parents in the Armed Forces, Central government, Public Sector Undertaking (PSU), or private sector are transferred, they are given exemptions in admission.
Repeating students: Children who might need to repeat a class due to certain reasons.
Children with severe illness: If a child is down with an illness, and has fallen behind in studies, will be given re-admission.
Hostel to day-scholar transition: Students shifting from hostel accommodation to day-scholar status will be granted admission exemptions.
Academic Improvement: Students applying for re-admission to improve academic performance may be considered for exemption, provided the school determines there are no alternative solutions.
The official notices states: “The schools shall record the reasons for such admissions beyond the limit of 40 in each section in the portal at the time of registration of students for classes IX- XII. The same shall also be recorded in the Admission & Withdrawal Register at the time of taking their admissions”.
What are the rules schools should abide by?
Schools wishing to admit more than 40 students are to abide by the following rules;
For Classes 9 to 12, schools must upload the reason for each admission on the CBSE portal and record it in the Admission and Withdrawal Register.
For Classes 1 to 8, reasons must be documented in the register and uploaded on the CBSE’s OASIS portal.
Mid-session admissions (transfer or repeat category) require prior approval from the CBSE regional office.
CBSE has strictly stated that no section may exceed 45 students, aiming to prevent overcrowding and uphold education quality.
If a school admits up to 45 students in a section, it must meet the basic infrastructure requirements under Clause 4.8 of the CBSE Affiliation Bye-laws (2018) – including a minimum classroom size of 500 sq ft and 1 square metre of space per student.
CBSE has also advised schools to prepare for reinstating the 40-student limit in the future, which may require constructing additional classrooms or upgrading current ones.
