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1,700 Chandigarh students seeking admission to Class 11 left in the lurch
Around 30 parents along with the affected children created ruckus outside the district education office
Almost 1,700 students seeking admission to Class 11 in 40 senior secondary government schools of Chandigarh are left in the lurch as there are no seats left for them.
Around 30 parents along with the affected children allegedly created ruckus outside the district education officer Anujit Kaur’s office in Sector 19 on Monday. “In panic, we had to call police to bring the situation under control,” she said. UT education secretary BL Sharma also convened a high-level meeting in his chambers in Sector 9 on Monday to take stock of the situation. Kaur and director school education Rubinderjit Singh Brar were also present.
The UT education department on August 7, after conducting three rounds of counselling, had asked the remaining students to fill forms for further admissions. Kaur confirmed that 1,700 forms were received. However, no further information has been given to parents about the admissions so far.
Notably, there were only 12,815 seats for Class 11 in all streams while the total numbers of applicants was 18,575.
A parent, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said: “The department asked us to fill the forms for the fourth counselling. However, they have not conducted the admission process after that. We are now told that there are no seats left.”
Even during the third counselling held at Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 10, on August 3, parents had manhandled teachers over denial of admission to some students. Police had to intervene.
CBSE limits student strength
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in its new affiliation bylaws released last year had restricted the number of students to 40 in each section.
Sources said the CBSE can detect flouting of the class strength rules when a school applies for the board exams registration through the online affiliated school information system (OASIS), which accepts only the prescribed limit.
“This is the first time that government school admissions are being denied to students. Earlier, schools were able to flout the norms, though children were packed like sardines in classrooms,” said a principal, who did not want to be named.
“According to CBSE norms, there should be 40 students in a section. In our case, the number is already between 55 and 60.Thus classrooms are filled to capacity,” said BL Sharma. “I will convene a meeting with principals for ascertaining the scope of admitting additional number of students.If there is any scope, we will consider admitting the remaining applicants.”
Sharma said as a long-term measure, “we will initiate steps to upgrade some secondary schools to senior secondary level in order to accommodate more students in Classes 11 and 12”.
“Crowding classrooms with students beyond the capacity affects the teaching-learning process adversely,” he said.
An official privy to the development said: “Most of the affected students are those who faired poorly on the merit list in Class 10. The department does not want to compromise with the Class 11 and 12 results by admitting them. Excluding them from the formal education system is not the answer.”
