Bhubaneswar: Aug 14: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik urged Union Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank to ask the CBSE to reconsider its decision of hiking examination fee for Class 10 and Class 12 students.
In his letter to the Union Minister, Naveen Patnaik said,”The abnormal rise, specifically of the fees in respect of Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) students by 24 times has come as a shock’.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has recently announced a sharp hike in the examination fees of Class 10 and Class 12 students.
He said the Odisha government has opened more than 200 English medium model schools affiliated to CBSE in rural areas for the benefit of economically and socially underprivileged sections of society.
“This decision is bound to result in acute hardship to them,” the Chief Minister said.
Examination fee for SC and ST students under the CBSE has been increased from Rs 50 to Rs 1,200.
Similarly, General category students who were paying Rs 750 earlier will now pay Rs 1,500 for five subjects.
(Inputs from IANS)
