The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has relaxed affiliation norms for its schools, allowing them to set up branch schools under the same name and affiliation number, according to officials.

However, both schools will be required to have separate set of resources in terms of physical and academic infrastructure. There will be a seamless transition of branch schools to the main school and they will not be considered as new admissions according to the rules.

While the main school will be allowed to run classes from 6 to 12, the branch schools can run classes beginning from pre-primary to grade 5.

“The management and ownership of both the branches shall be the same and both schools shall share the same administrative and academic practices. There shall be a common website for both the branches and the website shall categorically have a section dedicated to branch school,” said CBSE Secretary Himanshu Gupta.

“The admissions for both branches will be managed by the main school besides maintaining the accounts of both schools. There shall be a seamless transition of students from branch school to main school and the students will not be considered as new admissions but will be considered promoted to Class 6 through natural progression,” he added.

While both schools would be required to keep separate teaching and non-teaching staff, the salaries would be disbursed by the main school only, he said.

At present, the CBSE does not permit opening branch schools and each school of the same group requires a different affiliation number.

“The board shall communicate with the principal of the main school for all issues, though it is not limited to the same,” Gupta said.

The norms for minimum physical infrastructure requirements, the safety of students as well as the teacher and pupil ratio will have to be separately followed by both branches, he said.