Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Saturday announced that government schools in the state will not charge any admission, re-admission and tuition fee from students for the 2020-21 academic session on account of the COVID crisis.

As far as the fee charged by private schools was concerned, the state government had already moved the court, but for government schools, no fee would be charged at all for the whole academic year, the Chief Minister said.

The Chief Minister also announced provisional admission in Class XI for the 31,000 Class X students in the open school system, who could not be promoted amid the COVID crisis based on internal assessment, as no such assessment exists for them. To ensure that their future is not adversely affected, the state government has decided to allow them provisional admission in Class XI, but they will be required to take examinations once things normalise, he said.

The Chief Minister made these announcements during the edition of #AskCaptain yesterday. He also announced a cash prize of Rs 5,100 each to 335 students who have scored over 98 per cent in Class XII.

Responding to a plea of help from Manpreet Singh, a small shopkeeper of Khamanu, Fatehgarh Sahib, whose daughter's name had been struck off the rolls due to non-payment of annual charges by a school, the Chief Minister said he would ask the DC to immediately intervene and ensure that the child is taken back into the school.

"No school can remove students like this," he assured, adding that strict penalties would be imposed, if needed, on any school indulging in such acts.