Pune: Unauthorised Extra Fees Being Taken From 10th And 12th Std External Students For Completing Admission Process
Pune, 4th October 2022: The facility of appearing for the examination as an external student has been made available by filling Form No. 17 for higher secondary (Std. 12th) and secondary school (Std. 10th) certificate examinations through the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education.
This facility is very important and useful for education in terms of ensuring that boys and girls who have dropped out of the mainstream of schooling due to social, economic, family, or personal issues achieve basic educational qualifications, as well as to take advantage of opportunities for higher education.
Since students who apply as external students are out of the stream of education, and since the parents of most of the children are illiterate or semi-educated, the condition of filling the application form online is inconvenient and unjust, as well as discriminatory towards such appliers.
Taking advantage of this condition, parents are being charged more than the authorised fee in schools and cyber cafes in many places. This online facility was not provided by the state board or local schools.
Further, when a centre has been selected to submit the documents, the school/college overturns asks questions such as, ‘Why did the centre get selected without our prior permission.’
Also, additional illegit fees are being demanded from the concerned schools and colleges even after submitting the receipt for payment of fees online.
A written complaint was made to the State Board on 22nd September 2022 against the schools which tried to deprive the students of education by obstructing them in an unregulated manner.
The Secretary, State Board has written to the Divisional Secretary, Pune Divisional Board and informed that, “All contact centre heads shall be required to submit the registration form of the students in addition to the registration fee. No extra fees should be charged, students should not be obstructed or cheated for any reason. Instructions of this kind should be issued immediately.”
Raising the issue during a press conference, Mandar Shinde, Child Rights Action Committee, Pune said, “Even after registering a complaint with the chairman of the state board, the schools designated as contact centres are obstructing the students. The concerned officials of the divisional board have advised complaining to the education department about the schools obstructing the state board as the work of the state board is limited to conducting examinations only. The list of the centres should be made public by The State Board and all the centres should give clear instructions to help the students fill out the forms. The state board and the education department in coordination with each other should take strict action against the schools concerned for the unruly behaviour so that such incidents can be avoided in the future.”
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