CBSE asks affiliated schools to go cashless from January 1

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has asked all its affiliated schools to go cashless in terms of collecting fee from the students from January 1, 2017. The demonetisation wave seems to have hit the school boards too and they are tackling it through digitisation.

The CBSE on Tuesday sent out a circular to the schools stating that "with a view to reduce cash transactions at school, all CBSE-affiliated schools shall introduce fee collection from students only online or through non-cash mode from the next quarter commencing from January 2017 onward".

The central board has also asked the teachers in these schools to spread awareness about the benefits of cashless transaction to parents during the Parent -Teachers meetings. Ever since the government scrapped the old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, many schools have switched to a cashless method of fee collection to help the parents.

"It's a fantastic move and we are fully prepared to handle the shift to non-cash modes of payment. While the option to pay through other means has always been available, many parents prefer to deposit fee in cash," director of Centre Point School Radhika Rajwade told the Times of India.

Heads of other schools seem to welcome the move too where the principal of Jain International School, Anmol Badjate said that move would provide support to government's demonetisation decision along with increasing the clarity and ease of financial transactions in schools.

"First, the workload of our accounts department will decrease. Second, now there won't be any confusion about lost deposit receipts etc as transactions will move through digital routes," the principal said.

Parents are also welcoming the step citing the clarity of the financial transaction. There are a lot of instances where parents receive deposit receipts of the fee but they lose them overtime. However, by making the transactions cashless, be it through Internet banking or cheques, the financial exchange would be very clear through digital mediums without any possibility of confusion.