The Central Board of Secondary Education will no longer inspect the physical infrastructure in affiliation-seeking schools.

The national board has amended its affiliation rules, deciding to rely on the school inspections done by district administration officials, human resource development minister Prakash Javadekar told a news conference on Thursday.

Till now the CBSE conducted its own inspection of the physical infrastructure of an affiliation-seeking school after district officials had inspected it and the institution had obtained a no-objection certificate from the state government.

Javadekar said the CBSE would now only hold an inspection of the academic outcome. A team from the board would visit the applicant school to see whether it has enough teachers, whether the teachers are adequately trained, and whether the quality of teaching is up to the mark.

If the CBSE is not satisfied, it can deny affiliation.

Javadekar said the process of applying for affiliation had become online. He said that nearly 8,000 applications from schools for affiliation, renewal or upgraded affiliation had been pending for the past 10 years.

The board has granted affiliation to about 2,000 schools and renewed or upgraded the affiliations of another 3,000 in these years.

Some 20,783 schools are affiliated to the board. The affiliation bylaws were last modified in 2012.

Javadekar said that all schools must disclose their fees on their website, and none can charge any hidden fee.