Students pay for hall ticket errors

Mumbai: Several parents of Secondary School Certificate (SSC) students in the city are complaining that schools are charging fees to make corrections in the students’ hall tickets. Corrections are required as students are stumbling on errors including incorrect spellings of names and surnames, wrong dates of birth, and so on.

Madhura Chatterjee, a parent, said, “My daughter got her hall ticket from the school at the beginning of this week and the surname was printed incorrectly. We asked the school about the mistake and they initially told us that it will be rectified by paying Rs 100 to the school. The error has occurred from the school's or the Maharashtra Board's side so why are we being asked to pay an additional fee to correct it?”

Many other parents in Mumbai are experiencing a similar situation. Another parent said that a Malad-based school is charging Rs 250 to rectify errors. “This kind of behaviour is happening because the board is not clear with its rules and guidelines regarding this. If they had informed schools and parents beforehand, nothing of this sort would have occurred.”

Subhash Borse, in-charge secretary of the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE), said, “We have received several complaints from the parents as well but the fact is that the making of hall tickets is the school's responsibility and not ours. However, we had beforehand told all the schools that in case of any errors, they were supposed to rectify the same for free and not charge anything from students.