The latest entrants to the digital bandwagon are schools, with CBSE mandating the payment of school fees and teacher’s salaries, online. This facility will be administered by net banking, debit or credit cards. Moreover E wallets like SBI Buddy and PayTm will be used to facilitate competitive fee payment.
To take it a notch further CBSE has urged schools to promote digitalization among its students and encourage them to go cashless. Schools have been advised to organize activity weeks to educate the children in this regard and thereby enable children to take this learning further to their homes and spread awareness to outsiders.
To help children get a firsthand experience, it is suggested that schools introduce smart cards in their canteen and tuck shops. This will give them an experience to use preloaded cards instead of cash and encourage them to promote the same in their homes.
This welcoming move was implemented after a brainstorming session of Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) with 350 nodal schools, conducted on December 7th, where ways to adapt and contribute to digital reform were discussed. The meeting also stressed the need to enlighten students on the same. “Students involvement will make promoting cashless transaction easier”, a CBSE official was quoted saying.
Taking a first step to embrace this change Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan has decided to impart training to its teaching fraternity and students of class IX and above on cashless modes of payment by taking the help of subject experts and teachers in commerce and computers and utilizing the services of Scouts and Guides to cascade this learning to various sections of society.
With every school participating in this drive, a dream of a new digital India is not far away.