Guwahati: After much speculation, the government at the Centre on Tuesday scrapped several discretionary quotas including that of Members of Parliament (MP) for admissions to Kendriya Vidyalayas. This important decision will help free over 40,000 seats in the centrally funded schools. The move comes weeks after the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) put on hold all discretionary quotas for admissions to various central schools across the country, following a review.
As per the revised admission guidelines issued by KVS, the government has also decided that children orphaned due to COVID-19 will be considered for admission over and above the class strength in Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs) under the PM CARES for Children Scheme.
The admission will be done on the basis of a list given by the district magistrate, subject to 10 children per Kendriya Vidyalaya. The admissions for the 2022-23 academic session is underway and will continue till June.
Under special provisions, MPs had discretionary power to recommend the admission of 10 children to a Kendriya Vidyalaya. Even a district magistrate had powers to recommend 17 students under the sponsoring authority quota in KVs. According to officials, doing away with this special privilege will also help stop the crowding of classrooms.
There are over 1,200 KVs in the country with over 14.35 lakh students. The MPs — 543 in Lok Sabha and 245 in Rajya Sabha — could collectively recommend up to 7,880 admissions a year under the quota.
“The quotas have also distorted the overall percentage of SC, ST and OBC reservations in schools. A review of the functioning of KVS was carried out by the Education Minister and Chairman. It was observed that these quotas crowd the classrooms, adversely affecting Pupil-Teacher Ratio and quality of teaching and learning,” a senior official said.
“On the other hand, wards of transferable central government employees who should be given priority in admissions were not able to find their rightful places in KVs, hence the decision was taken to discontinue the quota,” the official added.
KVs essentially provide admission to children of Central government employees. The sponsoring agency quota in the admission process has also been discontinued from the new academic year. Previously, five seats in each section of class 1 were filled by the children of sponsoring agencies such as the state government or a PSU in case the KV was located on their premises.
