Teachers seek rollback of Rs100-certificate fee by Punjab School Education Board

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, October 27

Raising voice against the Punjab School Education Board’s move to levy Rs100 certificate fee on students of Class V and VIII, the Democratic Teachers’ Front said this was against the promise of providing free education under the Right to Education Act, 2009.

The certificate fee would be levied on students while applying online for a request to issue a hard copy of the certificate. DTF spokesperson and secretary Ashwani Awasthi said the fee was already being imposed on students of Class IX onwards, but to impose it on students of Classes V and VIII is against the entitlement under the Right to Education Act.

“In the last two years, students have been deprived of board exams. Collection of fee, regardless, has been done by the PSEB, although no examinations have been conducted. In the past, the board had to rollback registration fee for Class V and VIII board exams after protests. But the board has now imposed a new fee burden on parents and students in the name of giving a hard copy of the certificate for Class X to XII and now, Classes V and VIII.”

He said this was in violation of the government’s free education law. He said for the last several years, the board has discontinued the honorarium for the supervisory staff in the examinations, all data entry work is done by teachers and even a small mistake is fined heavily. The DTF demanded rollback of the move by the PSEB.

Meanwhile, the spokesperson from District Education Department said the board was responsible for any decision in regard to the fee.

“If it’s on their agenda, then the Education Department has to wait for any directions in this regard,” said the spokesperson.

However, Deputy DEO Rekha Mahajan, said the District Welfare Department bears the burden of fee being charged by students under scholarship or merit scheme, in case of the needy students.