Central Board of Secondary Education
The body that affiliates 33,151 schools and sets the Class 10 and 12 papers they sit - and the one that has nothing whatsoever to say about what those schools charge you.
How verified is this page?
Partly verified
The school count is a live pull of the board's own affiliated-school report on 16 September 2026 and is date-stamped because that register moves monthly. The teacher rules come from the published CTET FAQ and the NCTE minimum-qualification index, and the in-service TET deadline from a report of the September 2025 Supreme Court ruling. One thing is deliberately not asserted: the reported bye-law requiring affiliated schools to publish a fee structure under Mandatory Public Disclosure could not be verified this session, because the board's own site returned an edge-server block on every path and its SARAS portal renders only in the browser. We would rather tell you the gap than fill it.
Source: CBSE SARAS - list of affiliated schools (live pull, 2026-09-16), checked 2026-09-16
- Authority
- Central Board of Secondary Education
- Known as
- CBSE
- Jurisdiction
- India and CBSE-affiliated schools abroad
- Country
- India
- What it regulates
- Affiliation: which schools may operate under the CBSE name, on what premises and with what staffing, and withdrawal of that affiliation
- Official portal
- www.cbse.gov.in
- Verification
- Partly verified
- Last verified
- 2026-09-16
Where its remit starts and stops
CBSE is two jobs in one acronym, and almost every misunderstanding about it comes from collapsing them. The first job is affiliation: deciding which schools may present candidates under its name, on what premises, with what staffing and what infrastructure, and withdrawing that permission when a school stops meeting the conditions. The second job is examination: prescribing the syllabus through its academic wing and conducting the Class 10 and Class 12 board examinations that decide what a school-leaving certificate in India is worth. Everything CBSE genuinely controls sits inside one of those two jobs. Anything outside them is somebody else's, and usually a state government's.
The scale is worth stating precisely, because the number most often quoted is stale. A live pull of the board's SARAS affiliated-school report on 16 September 2026 returns 33,151 affiliated schools, of which 32,883 are in India and 268 are outside it. CBSE's own long-running static description of itself still speaks of roughly 24,000 schools, and a great many news pieces and school-comparison sites have copied that figure forward for years. If you are quoting a school count, quote the report and the date you pulled it, because the register moves every month as new affiliations are granted and lapsed ones fall away.
Those 268 schools outside India are the part people find hardest to believe. An affiliated school in Sharjah, Doha, Muscat or Kathmandu is affiliated on exactly the same terms as one in Coimbatore: it appears in the same register, teaches the same prescribed syllabus and its candidates sit the same papers on the same dates, adjusted only for local time. There is no lesser or parallel overseas category. What differs is everything CBSE does not govern. That school is also licensed, inspected and fee-approved by the education authority of the emirate or country it stands in, and on fees, safeguarding and staffing conditions that local authority is the one with power.
The most consequential thing CBSE does not do is money. It does not set school fees, it does not cap increases, it does not approve a fee schedule before a school issues it, and it does not publish a register of what affiliated schools charge. A parent searching for a CBSE fee limit is searching for something that does not exist at the board level. In Tamil Nadu a statutory fee committee determines per-school fees and publishes them; in other states the position varies; in the Gulf the emirate authority approves the schedule. The board sits above none of that. It has one money-shaped power, and it is indirect: a state fee committee that finds a CBSE school collecting excess fee can recommend disaffiliation to CBSE, which turns a fee question into an affiliation question.
The second audience for this page is teachers, and the rule that governs them is not CBSE's own rule at all. Teacher eligibility for Classes I to VIII flows from the NCTE's minimum qualification framework, and the test that proves it - CTET - is merely conducted by CBSE on NCTE's behalf. Clearing it confers eligibility and nothing more: the CTET documentation is unusually blunt that passing gives no right to appointment and that recruitment sits outside the board's jurisdiction entirely. What changed recently is who has to hold it, and that came from the Supreme Court rather than from any board circular.
What CBSE actually governs
The lines that begin “NOT” matter as much as the rest. Most of the time people lose writing to the wrong body, they lose it on one of those.
Who approves a fee, and where the published figure lives
CBSE does not set or publish school fees. There is no board-level fee cap, no approved fee schedule filed with CBSE before a school issues its circular, and no central register of what affiliated schools charge. Say that plainly, because the internet is full of pages implying otherwise. Where fees are actually governed, they are governed elsewhere: by a state statute and its fee-fixation committee, as in Tamil Nadu, or by the emirate or national authority that licenses the premises, for a school affiliated abroad. The board's only lever is indirect and sits on the affiliation side, where a state committee finding excess collection can recommend disaffiliation, converting a fee dispute into an affiliation risk. Separately, it is widely reported that CBSE's affiliation bye-laws require every affiliated school to publish its fee structure under a Mandatory Public Disclosure heading on its own website. That requirement is reported, and we could not verify it this session: cbse.gov.in returned an edge-server block on every path attempted on 16 September 2026, and the SARAS portal serves a client-rendered shell from which no bye-law text could be read. We are therefore not asserting it as a rule. Treat it as a thing to check on a school's own disclosure page rather than as a right you can cite.
Source: CBSE SARAS - list of affiliated schools (live pull, 2026-09-16), checked 2026-09-16
What a grade means, and where the report lives
The framework
No published rating or grading scheme
CBSE publishes no graded rating for affiliated schools. There is no Outstanding-to-Weak ladder, no scored inspection report and no comparable public grade.
Source: CBSE SARAS - list of affiliated schools (live pull, 2026-09-16), checked 2026-09-16
What a teacher needs before a school here can hire her
For Classes I to VIII, eligibility runs through a Teacher Eligibility Test, either CTET or your state's own TET, against the NCTE minimum qualification framework. Paper I qualifies you for Classes I to V and Paper II for Classes VI to VIII, so a candidate who wants the whole primary and upper-primary range sits both. A score of 60 per cent or more counts as TET Pass, and certificates issued are valid for life following the public notice of 21 June 2021, replacing the earlier seven-year expiry. There is no cap on attempts and CBSE conducts CTET twice a year. Classes IX to XII do not require a TET. Since September 2025 the picture has changed for people already in post: the Supreme Court held that serving teachers with more than five years left to retirement must clear the TET within two years.
Step 1
Work out which paper your target classes actually need
Paper I is the qualification for Classes I to V and Paper II for Classes VI to VIII. They are separate papers with separate content, and clearing one does not carry into the other, so a candidate who wants to be appointable across the full elementary range registers for both rather than assuming the higher paper subsumes the lower. If you intend to teach only Classes IX to XII, no TET is required of you at all and this whole route is not yours.
How long: Decide before the registration window; each paper runs 2.5 hours
Step 2
Check your qualification against the NCTE framework, not against the job advert
The minimum qualifications are laid down by NCTE through a series of gazette notifications and their amendments, and it is that framework a recruiter is bound by, however loosely a vacancy notice is worded. The relevant degree plus teacher-training combination has to match the stage you want to teach. Getting this wrong is expensive because it is discovered after the test, not before it.
How long: Not published; depends on your existing qualification
Step 3
Register for CTET or your state TET in the open window
CBSE conducts CTET twice a year and registration is through the CTET portal. A state TET is conducted by that state's own recruitment board and is the right route if you intend to teach within that state. There is no limit on the number of attempts, and a candidate who has already passed may sit again to improve a score, since recruiters are directed to give weightage to the score itself.
How long: Twice yearly; window dates announced per cycle
Step 4
Clear at 60 per cent and keep the certificate
Sixty per cent is the qualifying mark for TET Pass. School managements may apply their own reservation-policy concessions for SC, ST, OBC and differently-abled candidates. The certificate no longer expires: the seven-year validity was replaced by lifetime validity through the public notice dated 21 June 2021, so a pass you hold from years ago is still a pass.
How long: Result timelines vary by cycle and are not fixed in advance
Step 5
If you are already teaching, count your years to retirement
In September 2025 the Supreme Court ruled on in-service teachers, holding that those with more than five years of service remaining before retirement must qualify the TET within two years. Teachers with less than five years left are treated differently. If you are in post without a TET, this is now a live deadline rather than a theoretical requirement, and it is the single most important line on this page for anyone already in a classroom.
How long: Two years from the ruling for those with over five years to retirement
Step 6
Apply to schools, knowing the test is eligibility and not an offer
The CTET documentation states directly that qualifying does not confer a right to employment and that appointment criteria fall outside the board's jurisdiction. The certificate makes you appointable; the school's management decides who is appointed, on what salary and on what terms, and no board rule constrains that.
How long: Set by each school's hiring cycle, not published centrally
Source: CTET frequently asked questions (v5, 05.08.2025), checked 2026-09-16
The mistakes that cost people a season
- Reading a TET requirement into Classes IX to XII. It applies to Classes I to VIII. A proposal to extend it upward has been reported in the press, but no notification has been issued, and a page that presents it as coming is telling you about a plan rather than a rule.
- Reading CBSE affiliated as CBSE run. Affiliation is a permission to teach the syllabus and present candidates. The school is owned and managed by a trust, a society, a company or a government department, and your fee dispute, your staffing complaint and your admission query all belong to that owner and to the state authority above it.
- Quoting the 24,000-school figure. The board's own static copy has carried a number in that range for years. The affiliated-school report pulled on 16 September 2026 returns 33,151. Cite the report and the date you pulled it.
- Believing a CBSE school abroad is a lesser category. A school sitting under state code 50 for foreign schools is affiliated on identical terms to one in India, appears in the same register and sits the same papers. What changes is the local authority stacked above it on premises, fees and staffing.
- Writing to CBSE about a fee increase. The board does not set, approve or publish fees. Depending on where the school stands, the body with power is a state fee committee or a foreign education authority.
- Treating a CTET pass as a job. The board's own FAQ says qualifying confers no right to appointment and that recruitment is outside its jurisdiction. It makes you eligible to be considered and nothing further.
- Assuming an old TET certificate has expired. Validity became lifetime under the public notice dated 21 June 2021. A certificate from the seven-year era is still valid for appointment.
- Sitting only Paper II and expecting to teach Class III. Paper II covers Classes VI to VIII only. Classes I to V need Paper I.
What has changed on this page
Dated, sourced, and including the corrections. A page that only ever grows is a page that never admits it was wrong.
The Supreme Court ruled on Teacher Eligibility Test obligations for people already teaching, holding that in-service teachers with more than five years of service remaining before retirement must qualify the TET within two years. This turns a requirement that had applied mainly to new entrants into a live deadline for a large number of serving teachers.
Source: SCC Online - Supreme Court on TET for aspiring and in-service teachers, checked 2026-09-16
School count refreshed from a live pull of the SARAS affiliated-school report: 33,151 affiliated schools, 32,883 in India and 268 abroad. The widely repeated figure of about 24,000 comes from the board's own static description of itself and is years out of date.
Source: CBSE SARAS - list of affiliated schools (live pull, 2026-09-16), checked 2026-09-16
Page created. The affiliation and examination remit, the absence of any fee power and the CTET route are written from sources that were opened and read. The reported requirement that affiliated schools publish a fee structure under Mandatory Public Disclosure could not be verified this session, because cbse.gov.in returned an edge-server block on every path and the SARAS portal serves a client-rendered shell with no bye-law text in it. It is marked as reported and unverified rather than asserted.
Source: NCTE - minimum qualifications of teachers, gazette notification index, checked 2026-09-16
CBSE, answered plainly
How many schools are affiliated to CBSE?
33,151 as of a live pull of the board's affiliated-school report on 16 September 2026, of which 32,883 are in India and 268 are outside it. If you see a figure near 24,000 it has been copied from the board's own static description of itself, which has not tracked the register for years. The count moves continuously as affiliations are granted and lapse, so quote the date you pulled it.
Does CBSE control what my child's school charges?
No. CBSE does not set fees, does not cap increases, does not approve a fee schedule and does not publish what affiliated schools charge. Fees are governed by whoever licenses the school where it stands: a state fee-fixation committee in Tamil Nadu, the education authority of the emirate for a school in the Gulf, and varying arrangements elsewhere. The board's only lever is indirect, since a state committee finding excess collection can recommend disaffiliation.
Are affiliated schools required to publish their fee structure?
It is widely reported that the affiliation bye-laws require a Mandatory Public Disclosure section on each school's website carrying the fee structure among other documents. We could not verify that this session and will not state it as a rule: the board's own site returned an edge-server block on every path attempted on 16 September 2026, and its SARAS portal serves a page that renders entirely in the browser with no readable bye-law text. Look for the disclosure section on the school's own website, and treat its presence as a norm rather than as a right you can cite.
Does CBSE rate or grade its schools?
No. There is no CBSE equivalent of an inspection rating ladder. A CBSE school abroad may well carry a grade, but that grade was awarded by the local authority that inspects it, not by the board. Inside India there is no published school-level grade from CBSE at all, which is why comparisons between CBSE schools are usually built from board results rather than from any official rating.
Do I need CTET to teach Class 11?
No. The Teacher Eligibility Test requirement covers Classes I to VIII. Paper I qualifies you for Classes I to V and Paper II for Classes VI to VIII. Classes IX to XII sit outside the requirement. There have been press reports of a proposal to extend it upward, but no notification has been issued, so anyone telling you it is already coming is describing an idea rather than a rule.
Does my CTET certificate expire?
Not any more. The validity was seven years under the earlier NCTE guidelines and became lifetime through a public notice dated 21 June 2021. A certificate you earned before that change is valid for appointment today. There is also no limit on attempts, so a candidate who wants a stronger score can sit again, which is worth doing because recruiters are directed to give weightage to the score itself.
I am already teaching without a TET. Is that still allowed?
That changed in September 2025. The Supreme Court held that in-service teachers with more than five years of service remaining before retirement must qualify the Teacher Eligibility Test within two years, with a different position for those closer to retirement. If you are in post without a TET and have a decade left, the practical answer is that you now have a deadline, and CBSE conducts CTET twice a year with no cap on attempts.
My child's school is CBSE. Who do I complain to about the building or the staff?
Not CBSE, in the first instance. Affiliation is a permission to teach the syllabus and present candidates for the board papers; it is not ownership. The school is run by a trust, society, company or government department, and premises, safety and staffing sit with that management and with the state or local education authority above it. The board becomes relevant only when the complaint is genuinely about affiliation conditions or about the examination itself.
The other authorities next door
A school's curriculum, its fees and its day-to-day licensing can each sit with a different authority, so the body you want depends on which question you're asking.
Where to go next
Whichever authority licences the school, the syllabus is the one we teach.
One free 20-minute assessment first, with no card and nothing to cancel. Afterwards you get an honest note on what the teacher actually noticed.
Still at step one of the licence?
The route above can still take a season, between the eligibility test and the hiring cycle. Teaching the same syllabus online from India needs none of it - no separate licensing exam to clear first, no relocation.