Nagpur: Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Sunday called in technical experts from two IITs and enlisted four public sector banks to overhaul CBSE’s payment gateway, a day after a technical failure caused incorrect fee deductions for Class 12 students applying for scanned copies of their evaluated answer books. CBSE also announced that it would refund excess fee charged due to a technical glitch. The crisis was triggered by portal errors on May 21 and 22, during which students applying for scanned copies were either overcharged or charged less than the applicable fee. CBSE controller of examinations Dr Sanyam Bhardwaj, in a notice issued Sunday, said excess amounts would be refunded through the same payment method used at the time of application. Students who were undercharged would be separately informed about payment of the balance amount, if required. The board said scanned copies would be provided to all affected students without requiring fresh requests. As the scale of the disruption became clear, Pradhan directed that a team of professors and technical experts from IIT Madras and IIT Kanpur be deputed to assist CBSE. The expert teams would examine portal stability and server performance, assess the overall IT infrastructure, and take corrective measures on login authentication, user access systems and payment gateways. Pradhan also spoke with Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, and it was decided that State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank and Indian Bank would assist CBSE in strengthening its payment gateway infrastructure and integrating it with the post-result services portal. Pradhan directed CBSE to carry out a complete overhaul of its payment gateway system.The education ministry in a public statement said that the coordinated effort with the finance ministry and the four banks was expected to ensure seamless digital transactions, improved gateway stability and a smoother experience for students using CBSE’s result-related services. Pradhan said student interests remained paramount and that all corrective measures had to be undertaken by CBSE on priority to ensure a transparent and efficient system.
