Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan today held detailed discussions with senior officials of four major public sector banks to revamp the payment gateway system of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). During the meeting, Mr Pradhan emphasised the need for seamless and secure payment systems to prevent inconvenience to students. He directed the banks to assist CBSE in establishing strong payment protocols to ensure timely transactions, immediate resolution of payment-related issues and automatic refunds in cases of excess or failed payments. The Minister also called for advanced technical safeguards, real-time monitoring and faster grievance redressal mechanisms to strengthen the existing infrastructure. He urged the banks to accord top priority to the initiative to eliminate technical glitches and payment failures in future. The participating banks assured full cooperation and committed to implementing enhanced protocols and necessary technical upgrades at the earliest, in close coordination with CBSE.
Earlier, on 24 of this month, Mr Pradhan had also discussed the issue with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman following complaints of payment and technical difficulties faced by students during CBSE post-result and re-evaluation processes. The meeting was attended by representatives from State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank and Indian Bank. During the meeting, discussions were focused on the student-friendly digital payment ecosystem, particularly for post-examination services such as re-evaluation, obtaining photocopies of answer sheets and other fee-based processes.
