Central govt scraps discretionary MP quota for admissions to Kendriya Vidyalaya
|HT|
The central government has scrapped the discretionary Member of Parliament (MP) quota for admissions to Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs), and issued revised admission guidelines on Monday. The move comes a week after the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) put admissions under ‘special provisions’, including the MP quota, on hold till further orders.
Under the KVS Special Dispensation Admission Scheme, or MP quota, a Member of Parliament had the power to recommend a maximum of 10 students from their respective constituencies in every academic year for admissions in classes 1 to 9.
There has been a long pending demand from MPs to either do away with the quota, or increase the number of students who can be admitted on the basis of recommendations.
According to the revised guidelines issued by the KVS, several amendments have been made under the ‘special provisions’ section of the admission policy. Other than the MP quota, the KVS has also removed other reservations, including 100 children of education ministry employees, children and dependent grandchildren of MPs and retired KV employees, and discretionary quota of school management committee chairman, among others. A senior official at the KVS, requesting anonymity, said that the amendments have been made by the Sangathan after due consideration. “The MP quota has been scrapped along with some other quotas under the ‘special provisions’ section of the admission. Some new quotas have also been included in their place,” he said.
The new quotas included 50 seats for the wards of group B and C central police organisations such as the CRPF, BSF, ITBP, SSB, CISF, NDRF, and Assam Rifles under the Union ministry of home affairs, posted for internal security, border postings, disaster responses, and other frontline areas, based on a list provided by the MHA. Besides, the KVS has also officially included children covered under the PM CARES scheme under the provisions. The admissions made under the special provisions are over and above the designated class strength.
During the recently concluded Parliament session, several MPs, including Congress’ Manish Tewari and BJP’s Sushil Modi, demanded that the quota should be scrapped or the government must increase the limit.
On March 21, Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan urged the Lok Sabha to collectively debate and decide whether the MP quota in KVs should continue or not. Following his appeal, Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla suggested that there could be an all-party meeting to debate the matter.
According to official data, during the year 2021-22, 7,301 students, including SC – 609, ST – 212, OBC – 1,811 and EWS – 55, were admitted through MP quotas across 1,248 KVs in India.
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