Bhubaneswar, June 30: The regional CBSE office here today issued a caution notice to students and their guardians to be extra careful while choosing a school in the wake of detection of institutions making false claims of affiliation.

Of the 236 schools in the state, about 100 are in Bhubaneswar. However, hardly 40 schools are affiliated to the board, says CBSE regional director L. Meena.

Acting on an allegation, the council officials had recently inspected a private school at Kharavela Nagar and found that it had no affiliation. "The school had been claiming to be a CBSE-affiliated one and enrolled students with false claims. The banners put around the institute claimed that the school had got CBSE affiliation. They are misleading the public," said Meena.

A similar incident took lace last year when the CBSE had identified another school running in the city and claiming that it had the board's affiliation. However, no action has yet been taken against the school.

"If the schools are not affiliated to the CBSE, we cannot take any action against them. The CBSE is not responsible for such schools, which make false claims. We will not be held responsible for the conduct of the exams or disbursement of certificates," he said, adding that the parents had to be extra-careful while admitting their wards.

"We believe that there are more such schools and parents must be very careful before getting students admitted to these institutes," he said. He also suggested that students and their guardians thoroughly enquired about the school before taking admission.

"Each school has a distinctive affiliation number and school number. People can visit www.cbse.nic.in, and click on the permanent affiliation and school directory to verify the status of a particular school," he said.