30 May,2015 03:40 PM IST | | Shreya Bhandary
Sahakar Education Society, whose failure to pay exam fees had resulted in the HSC board withholding the results of 124 students, deposited the same with the board; it was also slapped with a fine for the delay
Two days after 124 students studying at Sahakar Education Society's night school and junior college were denied their HSC results as their institute had failed to pay the examination fees on time, the results were finally released. The management of the Lower Parel-based institute had to cough up a fine of Rs 2 lakh, apart from Rs 79,000 as examination fees.
Pravin Dalvi, who works as a lighting technician by day and studied at the college in the evening, is happy to have finally got his exam results. File pic
"The school authorities were given clear instructions to pay the examination fees, as well as a fine for late payment. Though the fine amounts to a larger sum, we released the results as soon as they paid Rs 2 lakh in fine and the full examination fees," said Laxmikant Pande, chairman, Mumbai divisional board.
Not only did the school authorities have to pay this year's examination fee but also a pending fee from the previous year, in addition to the fine. Pande added that a consolidated list with results of all students was sent to the college on Friday, while the results were updated on the website by evening. mid-day had highlighted the issue in a front-page report on May 28 (âNight school fee goof-up leaves 124 HSC students stranded').
When mid-day spoke to the college principal Subhash Jadhav yesterday, he said the problem had been solved and students received their results. "There must've been some delay in payment by the management, which I was not aware of. But now that the problem has been solved. All students' marks are now available with the college and students, too, can access their individual scores online," said Jadhav.
He added that the overall pass percentage of the Arts batch stood at 70.31 per cent, while that of the Commerce batch stood at 45.61 per cent. The school comprises students who work during the day and study in the school in the evening hours, so that they can complete their education - which they had been unable to, owing to adverse circumstances.
Relief
All the students were happy that there was finally some clarity. "After assuming that we had failed the exams, I'm glad the results are finally out and I've scored so well. I had put in a lot of efforts into the exams," said Pravin Dalvi (38), one of the students. Dalvi, a Worli resident, works as a lighting and decoration technician during the day and pursues his education dream in the evening. He scored 61.3 per cent in the Commerce stream.
The topper of the institute is Prathamesh Parkar, a Commerce student, who bagged 78.31 per cent marks. He could not be contacted. Yesterday, members of the Maharashtra Navnirman Vidyarthi Sena (MNVS), the MNS' student wing, visited the college authorities as well as the Mumbai divisional board office in Vashi to get clarity on the matter.
"Students were left in the lurch as the college management was not revealing any information. We spoke to the board authorities to levy a minimum fine on the management, so that they can pay it off and students don't suffer any further," said Sudhakar Tamboli, from the MNVS.
