THANJAVUR: Nineteen Class 10 students of a private CBSE school in Thanjavur district, who had spent an entire year preparing for the board exam, had the shock of their lives on Friday when they did not get hall tickets for the board exam scheduled to start on Saturday.

The Prime Public School at Adirampattinam had faked its affiliation with the CBSE and the students have not been issued hall tickets by the central board, sources said. The school has at least 500 students on its rolls from LKG to Class 10, sources said. “A show-cause notice will be issued to the school and action will be taken against the management,” said Thanjavur Collector B Priyanka Pankajam.

Shakila Banu, one of the parents, said the school enrolled students claiming that it was affiliated with CBSE. “Only on Thursday night we came to know that it was not affiliated and our children were not given hall tickets,” she said.

The collector said the affected students were given the option to write the Class 10 exam under State Board syllabus under special provision, but their parents had rejected that offer. She said the decision was made after discussions with School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi and department secretary.

Students decided to appear in Class 10 exam through NIOS

“The students and parents agreed to the proposal initially, but they later said no. They said they would go by the school management’s decision to make the children sit for the Class 10 exam under the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) system in October 2025,” said Thanjavur Collector B Priyanka Pankajam.

On the violation on the part of the school, the collector said it was illegal to enrol students without affiliation and steps have already been taken to take action against the school by communicating the issue to the Directorate of School Education through the District Educational Officer (Private Schools). S Faisal Ahamed, correspondent of the school, was not available for comment despite repeated attempts to contact him on mobile phone.