The Union government has scrapped the discretionary Member of Parliament quota for admissions to Kendriya Vidyalayas, according to the revised admission guidelines issued by the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan.
The Sangathan is an autonomous body that runs Kendriya Vidyalaya schools across the country, which are meant to provide education to children of central government employees that are transferred across the country from time to time.
The announcement has come weeks after the Sangathan put on hold all discretionary quotas, including the MP quota.
Prior to the scrapping of this quota, 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.
Other than the MP quota, the Sangathan has also removed other quotas including that of 100 children of education ministry employees, children and dependent grandchildren of MPs and retired KV employees, and the discretionary quota of school management committee chairman.
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 of central government employees who died in harness and children who have shown special talent in fine arts.
The Union government had last year scrapped the Union education minister's discretionary quota for admissions from the 2021-22 academic session.
Recommendations made by Union ministers for admission to KVs were also done away with. 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 a year under the quota.
There are over 1,200 KVs in the country with over 14.35 lakh students.
According to the fresh guidelines, 60 admissions in KVs located anywhere in the country can be utilised exclusively for children returning from abroad along with their parents after their posting in current or previous years, and they would be considered for admission up to November 30.
"All these admissions will be subject to the condition that not more than five children would be admitted in one school in a year and that the children would be submitting a transfer certificate of a school abroad, in which they had. been studying prior to seeking admission in a Kendriya Vidyalaya," thit was stated in the guidelines.
The government has also decided that children orphaned due to Covid-19 will be considered for admission over and above the class strength in KVs under 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 till June.
(With PTI inputs)
