(Source:Livemint, Dec, 2021)
The Delhi University (DU) collected nearly ₹9.5 crore from around 1.4 lakh students towards fees for the examinations, almost double the amount the university previously received from exam fees, according to news agency PTI.
This happened due to the transparency introduced with the Centre’s Samarth portal, officials told the news agency. Earlier, several colleges would not entirely transfer the exam fees to the university as there was no effective mechanism in place to keep a check on payment fetched.
An examination fees of ₹500 is levied per semester on each student while s/he has to pay another ₹200 for each practical exam. Students appearing for re-exams pay an additional ₹500.
Speaking to the news agency, an official from the university said that Samarth has made exam fees collection a centralised process. “Earlier, colleges would collect this money but many wouldn’t pay to the university in full. It was difficult to keep a track of the number of students and the corresponding fee from various colleges under the university,” the official said.
“Another issue was that several colleges used to collect examination fees at the time of a student’s admission itself and hence it would not be clear what papers the student would opt for. So, it was quite a possibility that either the student was paying higher or lower than the exact amount,” he said.
It took the university more than three months to upload details of nearly 1.4 lakh students on Samarth, said DS Rawat, Dean, Examinations. “This time, students filled their examination forms on the portal. This solved several logistical issues that we were facing earlier,” he said.
Rawat also highlighted the loopholes in the previous system. He said earlier, sometimes, colleges would promote students to the third semester and even allow them to take exams without ascertaining whether they had cleared the previous semesters. He said the university’s in-house software, too, was not equipped to check such cases.
“Now, students who have not cleared their previous semester do not even receive their result and cannot open examination forms for the new semester,” he said, adding the portal carries all academic information of every student.
“Even when the student is filling the form, their subjects and paper codes are ticked beforehand. Earlier, students had to fill their details manually and key in the paper codes, sometimes leading to errors,” he said.
Attention Please: Students who paid the fee but on the portal still showing ‘Pay Examination Fee’.
Tell them to do the following on the student’s SLC portal:
- Click on Students -> Fee -> All transactions.
- Check the status by clicking on the last column.
If it is updated with the transaction details and date etc. then the fee is paid and the student can again check the examination form.
- Once the fee is paid the college can verify the examination form with respect to the correct paper.