HPBoSE Drops a Bomb: 290 Private Schools Suspended, Board’s Own Credibility on the Mat.
SHIMLA, NOVEMBER 9: The Himachal Pradesh Board of School Education (HPBoSE) has suspended the affiliation of more than 290 private schools in one stroke — a decision that has rattled already shaky Sarakari and private education ecosystem of the state’s board.
Future of thousands of students of rural parents hang in balance as the board action is under scanner as the state government is switching over to CBSE pattern considering board’s poor and dwindling performance track record.
The board says these schools were not teaching its prescribed syllabus or using its own publications, a violation of affiliation norms.
But beneath the surface lies a far bigger story — the crisis of credibility of the board itself.
With over 1,400 private schools under HPBoSE, most of them running in rural belts, the suspension list points to the deepening craze among village families for English-medium education.
Parents keep shifting their children from government schools to private ones, hoping for better English, better discipline and better futures.
Yet the ground reality is far from rosy. Many of these private schools have poorly qualified teachers, weak infrastructure, and are barely meeting teaching standards.
Still, they manage to attract rural students because government schools — under the same HPBoSE — have failed to inspire confidence.
And that’s where the irony stings.
The board, which has struggled to maintain teaching standards in its own government schools, has now taken a high moral ground with private schools.
Adding to the embarrassment, the state government itself has recently decided to shift several selected government schools to CBSE affiliation — an open acknowledgement of how incompetent and outdated HPBoSE has become.
Private school associations didn’t mince words. They slammed the board’s crackdown, saying even HPBoSE’s own teachers rely on help-books of outside publishers instead of board textbooks. The action, they said, reeks of hypocrisy.
With this mass suspension, HPBoSE may have flexed its regulatory muscle — but in the process it has exposed its shrinking relevance, tardy functioning, and a trust deficit so deep that even the government prefers CBSE over its own education board.
The fallout?
Thousands of students hanging in uncertainty. Hundreds of schools staring at closure.
And a board battling a credibility crisis of its own making.
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