The state education department launched its online registration service for Class IX students on the first week on May.

The registration service is on the lines of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) website.

As students were asked to register online, another problem came to the fore for school administrations because they did not have as many computers. Where they did have the terminals, there was no Internet connection.

Many principals had no other option but to knock on the doors of cyber cafes to register its students. Bihar School Examination Board officials accepted the fact. The registrations for Class IX started on May 6 and continued till May 19, where around 14.36 lakh students registered for pre-board examinations, most likely to be held in September, this year.

It was mandatory for principals to provide their own email ids and cellphone numbers while filling the forms. Students also had to pay a one-time registration fee of Rs 200.

"The online registration is for Class IX pre-board exams and the 2017 Matriculation examinations," said Bihar School Examination Board secretary Harihar Nath Jha.

"As many schools had no computer terminals or Internet connections, principals had to go to cyber cafes to register their students."

Around 177 government schools in East Champaran district had to resort to cyber cafes to register students.

"Few years back, the state education department provided us with computer terminals, but most of them remain to be installed because of the absence of computer teachers," said a government school principal of the district, on condition of anonymity said. "These computers were supplied to government schools to create computer awareness."

Cyber café owners had a steep rise in their business sales with so many students registering for Class IX.

"At least 15 cyber cafes have been hired by the schools for online registrations," said Kumar Suraj, a cyber cafe owner in Motihari. "The cafes were paid Rs 20 to Rs 25 for filling up each form."

The board had asked principals to carry out the registration process to cut down on the students' inconvenience.

According to the District Information System for Education (DISE) figures for 2014-15, only 25.22 per cent government schools in Bihar had power connectivity, putting the state in the 34th position.