New Delhi: The Education Ministry has scrapped quotas in several categories including that of Members of Parliament (MPs) and District Magistrates (DMs) for admission to centrally funded school Kendriya Vidyalayas.
Earlier, the KVS had put on hold all discretionary quotas, including the MP quota, for admission to KV schools across the country, following a review.
"In a revolutionary step to streamline admissions in Kendriya Vidyalas and improve the quality of education, it has been decided to discontinue several discretionary quotas which were beyond the approved students' strength," ANI quoted government sources as saying.
Reportedly, earlier, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had conducted a review and found that these quotas crowd the classrooms, adversely affecting the Pupil-Teacher ratio and the quality of teaching-learning.
During the review, it also came to the fore that the discretionary quotas had also distorted the overall percentage of SC/ST/OBC reservations in the schools.
"Keeping all these factors in mind, the decision has been taken to discontinue discretionary quotas of the Ministry of Education, Sponsoring Agency, MPs, etc. There was a long practice of recommending students by the Minister of Education, but the same has been discontinued," the sources added.
Notably, in 2021-22, the education minister did not recommend a single admission under his quota and the provision of recommending up to 10 cases by each MP is also discontinued.
However, 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 (R&AW) 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.
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