Last few days CBSE’s board examination fee hike has been in the news. Starting from this academic year, each student of class 10 and 12 taking the boards will have to pay Rs 1500. The migration fee has more than doubled. Students seeking migration will have to shell out Rs 350 and those who are re-seeking admission without clearing their examination will have to pay Rs 5000. 

Furthermore, as per the revised norms the SC and ST students will pay Rs 1200 for five subjects as against Rs 50 they were paying earlier. For appearing for an additional subject in class 12 board examination the SC/ST student who earlier never had to pay anything will now have to pay an extra fee of Rs 300. Students belonging to general category will also pay Rs 300 for same instead of Rs 150 they paid earlier. 

Completely visually impaired students are exempted from paying the examination fee to CBSE. Students who do not pay the registration fee will not be permitted to appear in the 2019-20 examination. 

Students studying in CBSE schools abroad will be paying Rs 10000 for 5 subjects for both the classes as against Rs 5000 they paid earlier. Fee for an additional subject in class 12 will now be Rs 2000.  

This increase is applicable to students pan India. This increase could have some grave effect on students of government schools. The Delhi government has declared that the Government will take care of the fee for the eligible students and shall reimburse the fee to those who have paid already but is still working out on the funding arrangements. CBSE registration fee is to be deposited no later than October 15th after which a penalty of Rs 2000 will be imposed. 

CBSE is a self financed body and works on a no profit no loss basis. It is an autonomous body and receives no funding from the government but works under the supervision of Union Ministry of Human Resource Development. 

The increase has been made after a gap of 5 years. This increase is also due to the loss CBSE would incur from loss of revenue from all-India entrance exams earlier conducted by them. The deficit amounts to over Rs 200 crores every year.  All India professional colleges entrance exams are now conducted by the newly created National Testing Agency (NTA)

On 13th August, CBSE decided to roll back the fee hike for SC/ST students of Delhi government schools. They would now be paying Rs 50 only as earlier. 

Sources: Business Standard, The Indian Express, Times of India, The Hindu, NDTV