The Central Board of Secondary Education tacitly threatened some of its schools with discontinuing their affiliation if they failed to ensure the “maximum possible” registration of students, parents and teachers for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s latest Pariksha Pe Charcha programme.

Registrations for this year’s Pariksha Pe Charcha — held on January 29, weeks before the general election — skyrocketed to 2.26 crore from last year’s 38 lakh, government figures show.

The CBSE’s regional office in Bhubaneswar sent emails to the principals of several schools in Odisha in the first week of January expressing displeasure at what it felt was poor registration of participants by them.

Issued by Lalit Kumar Himanshu, CBSE undersecretary, Bhubaneswar, the letter said low registration by a school “may result in difficulties” for the extension of its affiliation.

Pariksha Pe Charcha is an annual event, held in an auditorium before an audience of schoolchildren, parents and teachers, where the Prime Minister tries to allay students’ exam stress. It is live-streamed and also beamed by various television channels.

The government expects schools to register the “participants” — who include the online and TV viewers — on a portal.

“Dear Principal, Registration for your school is very low for ‘Pariksha Pe Charcha 2024’. Schools are being scanned individually for registration by the CBSE Headquarters,” Himanshu’s letter said.

“Low registration from your school may result in difficulties during the extension of Affiliations and related work.”

The letter added: “You are requested to register the maximum possible number of students, parents and teachers from your school today itself. Mass registration by the
class teachers is the best and easiest way.

“Execution of task is better than excuses later and face difficulties.”

A school principal in Delhi said the CBSE had directed and then reminded its affiliated schools in the capital to register the participants via an online registration link.

Another school principal said the government had through the registration process obtained a massive database of Class XII students, many of whom would have recently turned 18 and become eligible to vote in the Lok Sabha elections. The students share their contact details while registering.

An email was sent to CBSE chairperson Nidhi Chhibbar seeking the reason for the coercive strategy adopted to increase registration by the schools for the Pariksha Pe Charcha programme. Her response is awaited.