No more discretionary quotas in KV admissions; will free 40,000 seats – Times of India

NEW DELHI: In a major decision to free 40,000 seats in Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs), the government has decided to completely do away with the “quota raj” in these centrally funded senior secondary schools. Taking away the special privileges the members of Parliament (MPs), government officials and Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS), among others enjoyed in the form of discretionary quotas, the government has also decided to offer admission to children orphaned due to the Covid-19 pandemic under PM Cares for Children Scheme and will be exempted from payment of fees.

The discretionary quotas were put on hold early last month and were reviewed by the ministry of education. The decision to scrap was taken on Monday and according to a government note, accessed by the TOI, another reason for discontinuing the reservation is because “it has also distorted the overall percentage of SC/ ST/ OBC reservations in the schools.” The government believes that doing away with this special privilege will also help stop crowding of classrooms.

As per the revised guidelines for the 2022-23 academic year, reservations in admission will be extended only to SC. ST. OBC and children with disabilities. The 3% reservations for persons with disabilities is supernumerary. The admissions for the 2022-23 academic session is underway till June 2022.

Under the special provisions, MPs had discretionary power to recommend the admission of 10 children to a KV. Even a district magistrate had powers to recommend 17 students under the sponsoring authority quota in KVs. Other than the MP quota, the KVS has also removed other quotas including 100 children of ministry of education employees, children and dependent grandchildren of MPs and retired KV employees, and the discretionary quota of school management committee chairman among others.

The Central government had last year scrapped the Union education minister’s discretionary quota for admissions from 2021-22 academic session. However, it was decided that the MPs of both houses will continue to recommend admissions into KVs in each academic session. The MPs — 543 in Lok Sabha and 245 in Rajya Sabha — could collectively recommend up to 7,880 admissions per year under the quota.

The special provisions that have been retained include admissions for children of recipients of Param Vir Chakra, Maha Vir Chakra, Vir Chakra, Ashok Chakra, Kirti Chakra and Shaurya Chakra; recipients of the National Bravery Award; 15 children of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) employees; children orphaned due to Covid-19; children of central government employees who died in harness; children who have shown special talent in fine arts.

As per the government’s note, “…a review of the functioning of KVS was carried out by the Hon’ble Education Minister and Chairman KVS. It was observed that these quotas crowd the classrooms, adversely affecting Pupil Teacher Ratio and the quality of teaching-learning. On the other hand, wards of transferable central government employees, who shall be given priority in admissions, were not able to find their rightful places in KVs…. the decision has been taken to discontinue discretionary quotas of ministry of education, sponsoring agency, MPs, etc.”

“Moreover, there were provisions of thousands of admissions under quotas of Sponsoring Agencies and Chairpersons Vidyalaya Management Committees, i.e., District Collectors, which have now also been discontinued. It will free up about 40,000 seats in KVs across the country,” the note added.