A CBSE school runs on a fixed academic year, subject departments and board-exam years that put heavy weight on Class 10 and 12 teachers. Records, workload and teacher pay are watched by parents, the trust and the board.
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Share your requirementsA CBSE school follows a set academic calendar with unit tests, term exams, board practicals and results, and its teachers are split across primary, middle and senior sections. Subject teachers for classes 9 to 12, with graduate and postgraduate qualifications, carry the board results that parents quote at admission. Coordinators, heads of department and the principal sit above them, with a management trust or society above the principal. Staff files must show qualifications, appointment letters, service records and training, since the board and the management ask for them. Hiring happens before the session, and a mid-year resignation in a board subject hurts. The wider education hub covers what all schools share.
These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.
HR here has to work for each of these groups, not only the office. The set-up below is written with all of them in mind.
Class 10 and 12 teachers face pressure on results from parents and management, and extra classes stretch the day.
Qualifications, appointment letters and training certificates must be at hand, yet files are often incomplete or scattered.
A physics or maths teacher leaves in November and the board class has no one trained to take over.
Some teachers carry five or six classes plus assessments, while others have free periods, and nobody has counted it.
A good teacher becomes a coordinator and is expected to handle staff, parents and timetables without any preparation.
Teachers compare salaries across nearby schools and the pay scale is not explained, so quiet resentment builds.
Start with the topics that matter most here: Policies, Compliance and Governance; HR Strategy and Workforce Planning; Organisation Design. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for education, not in general.
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
Two routes — one for complaints, one for conduct — kept separate.
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.
Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.
A short monthly pack management actually reads.
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
The pieces a CBSE schools business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
One checklist of papers every teacher's file must hold, checked at joining and once a year.
What this coversHideOne checklist of papers every teacher's file must hold, checked at joining and once a year. See the HR documentation process.
A subject by class map of teachers needed, with likely leavers and a bench of trained substitutes.
What this coversHideA subject by class map of teachers needed, with likely leavers and a bench of trained substitutes. The workforce planning process shows how.
Periods, classes, assessments and duties per teacher, shown on one sheet and used when allocating the next timetable.
What this coversHidePeriods, classes, assessments and duties per teacher, shown on one sheet and used when allocating the next timetable.
A short programme on running a team, handling parents, giving feedback to colleagues and managing the calendar.
What this coversHideA short programme on running a team, handling parents, giving feedback to colleagues and managing the calendar. The manager development programme fits here.
A written scale with grades for PRT, TGT, PGT and coordinator, increments and how they are reviewed.
What this coversHideA written scale with grades for PRT, TGT, PGT and coordinator, increments and how they are reviewed. Staff should be able to see where they stand.
Names of good teachers met during the year, so a November gap can be filled with someone you already know.
What this coversHideNames of good teachers met during the year, so a November gap can be filled with someone you already know.
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These checks take an afternoon and tell you which of the topics above to start with.
Share your requirementsConfirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.
The services below fit this kind of business best. Each starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes.
Staff files and letters kept in order, so records can be produced when asked.
Practical preparation for coordinators and heads of department who manage colleagues.
A pay structure that staff can understand, set against nearby schools.
A year-ahead plan of teachers by subject and class, with gaps and substitutes identified.
Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.
Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.
Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.
Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.
Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.
Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.
Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in education, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
Faculty, administrative and support staff leave for different reasons. How to ask what shaped their decision and act on it within the academic calendar.
7 min readRead article
A practical contents list for an employee handbook in a growing Indian business: what to cover, what to leave to policies, and how to keep it usable and current.
5 min readRead article
Hiring decisions made one request at a time, in the month the pain is worst. What a workforce plan contains and why a twelve-month view changes what you hire.
7 min readRead article
A flat structure works until the founder becomes the only route to a decision. How to tell when you have passed that point, and how to redesign without a reorganisation.
8 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Plan subject cover a year ahead, pay fairly, and spot workload problems early. Keep a bench of known substitutes and a coordinator ready to step in. Many leave because of load and not recognition.
Appointment letter, qualification copies, service history, training records, appraisals and any notes agreed with the teacher. Check with a qualified professional which papers your board and state require.
Give them a small team to lead first, pair them with an experienced coordinator, and run short sessions on handling colleagues, parents and timetables. Do it before the title, not after.
It can be, if the extra load is real and the basis is open. Some schools use workload counts and role responsibility rather than label. Explain the logic so other staff understand.
Start in the previous term. Map subjects by class, list expected exits and leave, decide hires and trial classes early, and block time for induction before the session. Late hiring leaves weak choices.
We would ask how many files are complete, how teaching loads are counted and which board subjects have no second teacher. A staff file standard with a one page pay scale is a natural first job, and scope is written for your approval.
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