Citing the financial struggles faced by parents due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the All India Parents Association (AIPA) has asked the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to waive off the board exam registration fees for classes 10 and 12 students.
The association had also filed a plea before the Delhi High Court seeking direction to CBSE to waive the board exam fee. It added that government school students are at a disadvantage as several parents are unable to pay fees to poor financial conditions. As a result, the students are being pulled out of school.
The parent association said, “Last year too parents had submitted full board exam fee and later both class 10 and 12 boards were cancelled, however, the board exam fee was not refunded.”
The parents association in its letter to the board said that either the state governments should pay the fee or the CBE should waive off the registration fee. “For the last almost two years till now the whole country is badly affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Due to the lockdown and all the restrictions in the last two years, the livelihood and income of the parents of the students have been badly affected,” the association said.
Last year too, the association had asked the board to refund the exam fee after the exams were cancelled but claim the board didn’t reply back.
A large number of parents have made their wards from private to government schools as they are not able to pay the fee. In such a situation, making them pay the board exam registration fee is not fair, as per the association.
Meanwhile, Delhi’s Directorate of Education (DoE) has written to the CBSE, urging it to waive off the board exam fees for government school students. The DoE director Udit Prakash Rai said they have been receiving a number of requests from parents who are unable to pay exam fees due to loss of income amid the pandemic.
This year, CBSE will hold two board exams. The term-I board exam application cum fee payment window is open. The board exam registration fee is Rs 1500 per candidate for five subjects and Rs 1200. The application window is open and will close on September 30. The window to pay will be available on October 1.
In 2019, the Kejriwal-led government paid the fees for roughly 3.14 lakh students. In the same year, the Union government announced that the examination fee will be increased to Rs 1200 from Rs 365 for SC/ST students and Rs 1500 from Rs 600 for the general category students. Following this massive hike, in October 2020, the Delhi government announced that it will not be paying for the examination fee since the resulting amount is estimated to be around Rs100 crore, which the government cannot afford in the pandemic-wounded economy.
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