A senior official from the Directorate of School Education told DT Next that more than 90% of the students paid the exam fees four months before the board exams. Each student paid Rs 100 for exam fee, Rs 10 for getting marks certificate and the government also imposed Rs 5 service charge for each candidate.

“Over 30,000 private candidates appearing for Class 10 board exams paid Rs 125 each, which has been split into Rs 100 for exam fee, Rs 10 for mark certificate, Rs 10 for the registration fee and Rs 5 as service charge,” he added.

The official said the exam fees were not collected from students belonging to Tamil medium schools and differently-abled candidates in government schools.

Stating that around Rs 10 crore was collected from the students for Class the board exams this year, the official said the authorities utilised the money for printing question papers and answer sheets, providing special pay for officials during exams and a certain amount would have also gone to the teachers, who would have been deployed for answer sheet evaluation. “The remaining amount would have been spent to print mark sheets for students,” he said.