Following an uproar, the State government has now decided to refund the fee it collected from 3.23 lakh students amounting to ₹2.66 crore for the National Talent Search Examination (NTSE) for 2021-22, which was postponed owing to the pandemic and never held.
The NTSE was conducted every year by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) in collaboration with State Education Departments. Class 10 students are eligible to take this two-part exam and those awarded the scholarship get a monthly stipend of ₹1,250 till pre-university and ₹2,000 during undergraduate and postgraduate studies.
NTSE scholars also get financial assistance to do their PhDs as per University Grants Commission (UGC) norms.
While the NTSE was held regularly every year, it has not been held since 2021-22. In 2021-22, applications were invited and a total of 3,23,750 students of government and private schools registered for the examination in the State.
The Department of School Education and Literacy (DSEL) collected a total of ₹2,66,72,717 as the exam fee. However, the NCERT postponed the NTSE scheduled on December 15, 2021, owing to the pandemic. The exam has not been held since.
“I applied for NTSE in 2021 when I was in Class 10 and now I am doing an undergraduate course. But the exam has not been conducted till now. It is sad that the NCERT has not conducted the exam even three years after COVID-19. The exam fee - ₹82 - may be small. But we expect accountability from both the NCERT and the DSEL,” said Rajesh S., a student.
The Karnataka Registered Unaided Private Schools’ Association (KRUPA) has also demanded that the exam fees be refunded.
Fee refund soon
After drawing the ire of students, parents, and school management associations, the DSEL has decided to refund the NTSE fee, as the examination was not conducted.
“The fee collected from students for NTSE have not been misused and the money is secure in the account of the Karnataka School Quality Assessment and Accreditation Council. A dedicated software has been developed to refund this fee and submitted to the State government. Once it is approved, we will refund the fee to respective schools,” said B.B. Cauvery, Commissioner of Public Instruction.
