New Delhi, Nov. 20: Schools affiliated to international boards or employing foreign teachers will need government approval if a proposed policy change comes through.

The Centre is set to issue an executive order that for the first time will set parameters within which all such “international” schools across the country will have to work, government officials said.

The directive will bar schools in India from hiring more than 20 per cent of their staff from abroad, according to documents related to the order. It will also seek to ensure pay parity between Indian and foreign teachers.

The executive order will make it mandatory for schools affiliated to international boards to obtain a no-objection certificate from both the Centre and the state in which they are operating.

Through the process of granting NOCs, the government, sources said, may for the first time be in a position to influence the schools’ policies.

Only Indians will be allowed to head these schools, the documents state, adding that their performance will be monitored annually.

Schools not affiliated to international boards will be barred from using the word “international” in their name, though a legal challenge to this particular ban cannot be ruled out, officials admitted. The word “international” is a generic term that does not enjoy any copyright protection.

The human resource development ministry has received sanctioning comments from all other ministries for the order, and is now approaching the cabinet, the sources said.

A cabinet approval will enable the government to publish the order in the gazette, putting in place the new guidelines.

The documents say that in 1991, when India opened up its economy, the country had less than five schools affiliated to international boards.

Today, 33 schools are affiliated to the International Baccalaureate system of schooling, and over 200 others are affiliated to the Cambridge International Examination format, according to government figures.

Such schools are now not guided by any government guideline and are free to hire as many foreign teachers as they wish. Nearly half the staff at some of these schools are foreigners, the documents state.

Several other schools carry the tag “international” with their name despite having no connection with any global board. “We believe the lack of regulation has helped these schools to mushroom,” an official said.

The order will enable the government to set up a standing committee to monitor the implementation of the new rules.

The committee will consist of representatives of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) and the Association of Indian Universities (AIU).

The CBSE and the CISCE are the two largest school boards in the country.

The committee is to be headquartered at the Council of Boards of School Education, India’s mutual platform for the myriad school boards across the country.

Many schools at present have different wage rates for Indian and foreign teachers, the sources said. “The executive order will specifically ban such differential wage rates,” a source said.

The schools will also be required to promote Indian culture and the concepts of “secularism and sovereignty”, one of the documents states.

The executive order is based on the recommendations of a panel set up by the HRD ministry under former education secretary P.R. Dasgupta two years ago to study the government’s options in controlling these institutions.

“The reason we are framing these guidelines is because Indian students study at these schools,” an official said.

The order will not cover schools run by foreign missions in India for children of their staff, the documents state. The American school run by the US embassy here, for instance, will not be affected.