Chandigarh – The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today asked chief minister Bhagwant Mann to ensure the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) does not fleece students even while it demanded the return of Rs 94 crore collected from them for conduct of examinations which were never held.
In a statement here, former Education minister Dr Daljit Singh Cheema said while on the one hand the chief minister was trying to regulate the functioning of private schools, he should also ensure the State education board did not make education a commercial activity. He said the Rs 94 crore collected for conduct of examinations for the 2020-21 session should be returned to the students as papers could not be conducted due to the Covid pandemic. “The excuse given by the Board that it had printed the papers for the examination does not hold any water. Printing costs are only a small part of the entire exercise. If necessary a small amount can be deducted from the Rs 1,100 taken from students and the remaining portion should be returned to them”.
Asserting that the Education Board should function in an honest and transparent manner, Dr Cheema said the chief minister should understand “that only when we set our own department in order can we implement needed reforms in the private sector”.
The SAD leader said it was also shocking that after charging students for services it had not given to them, the Education Board was now demanding Rs 800 from each student for a hard-copy of the result. “This is unheard of. Students should be given the certificate free of cost as they have already been charged examination fee. Even if some printing charge is to be taken from them it cannot amount to more than Rs 10 per copy”.
Dr Cheema said most of the students studying in government schools in the State came from dis-advantaged sections of society. “We cannot expect such students to pay exorbitant examination fee or Rs 800 for a certificate. Since the chief minister has been taking so much interest in the education sector, he should intervene immediately and put an end to all extortionist measures being taken by the Education Board”, the SAD leader added.
