Government school students need not pay any exam fees: Sisodia

New Delhi: Students of Delhi government and aided schools will not have to pay any fees for Class 10 and 12 CBSE examinations and the cost will be born by the city dispensation, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia announced on Tuesday. The decision was taken by the Delhi government following an announcement of a fee hike by the Central Board of Secondary Education. Sisodia also said the government is in discussion with CBSE to roll back the fee hike. On Monday, the board announced that the burden of the fee hike will not be passed on to SC/ST students in city government and aided schools as Delhi government will pay the board.

"Students in Delhi government schools and aided schools will not have to pay any fees for CBSE Class 10, 12 exams. Delhi government will bear entire cost for all categories of students, modalities being worked out," Sisodia told PTI on the sidelines of an event. "Delhi government is in process of discussing with CBSE to roll back the fee hike. Irrespective of what happens, no child will have to bear the burden of registration fees as the government will bear that," he added.

The CBSE last week notified an increase in the examination fees for Classes 10 and 12, registration fees for Classes 9 and 11 and migration fees. The fees for general category students for Classes 10 and 12 were doubled from Rs 750 to Rs 1,500 for five subjects. The Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) students, who were paying Rs 375 earlier, will now pay Rs 1,200 for five subjects. Under a special arrangement in the national capital, these students were only paying Rs 50, while the Delhi government was paying the rest of the amount as subsidy.

According to the revised norms, the SC/ST students were required to pay the entire amount to the CBSE. However, on Monday the board had restored the facility of SC/ST students paying Rs 50 after the city government agreed to pay the remaining amount. The CBSE had justified the fee hike, citing Rs 200-crore deficit in conducting class 10 and 12 board examinations. Early board results, measures to make examination leak proof and error-free evaluation have imposed a financial burden on the CBSE and passing on the responsibility of conducting competitive examinations like the JEE and the NEET to the newly formed National Testing Agency has also left it in a fund crunch, the board officials had said.