The Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) has decided to give a "golden" chance to the students of classes X and XII , who could not pass their examinations, to appear in the tests again.
The decision has been taken to mark the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, as per public notice. The board is giving special chance to students who got reappear/compartment in their exams after March 2004 onwards.
"Those students who could not pass their exams or those students who cleared their exams, but now wish to improve their score can avail this golden opportunity of appearing in exams again," it said.
The PSEB has fixed Rs. 15,000 as an exam fee for letting students to avail the opportunity.
The Punjab Democratic Teachers' Front has strongly condemned the PSEB's move, alleging that the board was fund-starved and trying to raise money from people to run its functions.
"It is sheer commercialisation. With the state government not extending any financial aid to departments and boards, the PSEB is trying to burden people by raising huge sum of money from poor students for allowing them to again appear in exams," Devinder Punia, secretary general of the front, said on Friday.
He said the board was charging five-times more than what it used to charge for giving special chance earlier to students.
"How can a poor student afford to pay Rs. 15,000?" Mr Punia asked.
"Most of the students in government schools either belong to lower-middle class or are economically backward. They cannot pay such an amount."
"We strongly condemn the steps of PSEB," he said, adding that the number of such students who got reappear/compartment would be in thousands.