From ₹600 to ₹850: How a Board Exam Fee Hike is Burdening Tribal Families in Rajasthan

Banswara- In the tribal-dominated district of Banswara, Rajasthan, the simple act of registering a child for their board exams has become a source of profound anxiety and financial distress. A recent decision by the Rajasthan Board of Secondary Education in Ajmer to significantly hike examination fees for classes 10 and 12 has sparked outrage and despair among guardians and students, pushing many impoverished families to the brink.

The move is seen not as a necessary administrative adjustment but as a direct threat to the educational aspirations of the state's most vulnerable communities, creating a situation where poverty, rather than merit, could determine a child's academic future.

The heart of the crisis lies in the stark numbers. The board has increased the theoretical examination fee from ₹600 to a flat ₹850 for all students. Furthermore, the practical exam fee has been doubled, from ₹100 per subject to ₹200. While officials cite rising costs of paper printing, evaluation, and exam center arrangements as the justification, for families in districts like Banswara, this is not a minor inflation adjustment but a formidable barrier.

Banswara, often hailed as the "cherry bowl" of Rajasthan for its verdant orchards, is home to a predominantly tribal population where over 80% of families teeter on or below the poverty line. Here, the fee hike is set to ripple through more than 38,000 students across the district alone, many of whom hail from Bhil and other Scheduled Tribe communities that have long battled systemic inequities in access to quality education.

For these families, every rupee counts toward basics like millet flour and kerosene for evening study lamps-metaphorically captured in the local adage of "kangali mein aata gila," or "damp flour in destitution," symbolizing how even the barest essentials are slipping away. The timing couldn't be worse: with exams slated to commence on February 12, 2026, and run through March 12, parents are staring down a dual burden of inflated coaching fees, soaring textbook prices, and now this punitive board levy, all amid a national economy where rural wages stagnate while costs climb.

Veerendra Chaudhary, a senior leader of the Rajasthan Teachers Union Siyaram, has been at the forefront of the outcry, branding the hike as "unjust and predatory" in a scathing critique that resonates deeply with the grassroots educators and activists in the tribal belt.

"This isn't education; it's extortion," Chaudhary says, pointing fingers at the board's opaque financial practices. He revealed how the institution, flush with an annual revenue of around 130 crore rupees from exam fees, lavishes bonuses, up to 35,000 rupees per employee, on its staff while delaying payments for critical services like answer sheet evaluation and exam center logistics. Worse still, Chaudhary alleged, the board siphons off 20% of collected fees into dubious heads like temple donations and magazine subscriptions, leaving students and schools in the lurch.

Choudhary has called for a high-level investigation into these bonus payments and other financial practices of the board, including delayed payments to evaluators and unnecessary deductions for magazines and other non-essential expenses. He directly accuses the board of making anti-student and anti-tribal decisions under the rule of an administrator, as a new executive body has not been formed for many years.

A significant part of the protest revolves around the demand for representation. The teachers' union has demanded that the tribal region, specifically Banswara, be included in the board's executive committee, with a chairperson and members representing their interests. They have even suggested the need for a separate education board for the Banswara tribal area to ensure that their unique socio-economic challenges are considered in policy-making. To mitigate the immediate crisis, the union has proposed that the government announce a relief or reimbursement scheme for students from tribal and BPL categories, ensuring that no economically weak student is deprived of their right to appear for examinations due to an inability to pay.

Compounding the fee controversy is a flurry of administrative tweaks to the academic calendar, announced by Education Director Sitaram Jaat in a bid to accelerate the school year and align with competency-based assessments. The board exams for Classes 10 and 12 will now unfold from February 12 to March 12, 2026, a compression that leaves little buffer for revisions amid the fee-induced stress.

Annual exams for Classes 9 and 11 shift to March 10-25, while primary levels Classes 3, 4, 6, and 7 move from April to March, with Classes 5 and 8 wrapping up even earlier on March 12. Competency evaluations, too, are front-loaded: the second round in November instead of December, and the third in March rather than April.

District education offices in Banswara are scrambling to recalibrate, dispatching directives to schools for mock drills and resource audits. Yet, for overworked teachers in understaffed tribal institutions, these changes feel like yet another layer of chaos, diverting focus from pedagogy to paperwork at a time when student morale is already fraying.