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85% quota under HC lens: Chandigarh admn to continue with Class 11 admissions
Chandigarh school education director says admissions will proceed as per schedule announced earlier, as the new policy is clear and fair
The Chandigarh administration on Friday said it will continue with Class 11 admissions at government schools with 85% reservation, as announced earlier, even as the Punjab and Haryana high court has said that these admissions will be subject to outcome of proceedings in high court.
UT director school education (DSE) Harsuhinderpal Singh Brar said, “We are going ahead with the admissions as per schedule announced earlier, as the new policy is clear and fair.”
On Thursday, acting on a plea, the high court had ordered that “admissions to Class 11 will be subject to the decision of the present writ petition,” and sought response from the administration by July 3.
The court had acted on a plea from a student, Swiyyahdeep Kaur, who completed Class 10 from St Stephen’s School, Sector 45, a school up to Class 10. She has challenged UT’s decision to reserve 85% seats in UT-run schools for students with matriculation from government schools.
The petitioner stated that majority of students who were in private schools that were till Class 10 will apply for admissions in government schools in the city. Among private schools, 18 are up to Class 10 and 38 are up to Class 12. On the other hand, 54 government schools are up to Class 10 and 43 up to Class 12, the plea said.
Seeking quashing of UT’s condition, the plea said there was no mention of notification in the prospectus and it only mentioned about proposal.
“Without following process known to law, the entire admission structure and process has been subjected to complete change by introducing the concept of institutional reservation, which is illegal,” it submits, adding that there was no detailed application of mind to firstly decide on the reservation granted.
There is also no data in that regard that ought to have been considered before taking such a decision, it said.
It also claimed that no detailed study had been carried out with respect to number of applicants to apply for Class 11 and reference to admissions done in the previous years. The present system will also compromise on merit, as students with lesser marks will steal a match over meritorious students only because they happen to have studied with a government school. It argued that UT’s decision was in violation of constitutional provisions of right to equal opportunity to all.
This year, the administration has decided to reserve 85% seats in UT-run schools for those coming from government schools. The seats that are not claimed will then be opened to general admissions.
Earlier admissions were open to all and in the last academic session it was seen that many government school kids who have to shifted from a government high school to a government senior secondary school weren’t able to participate in the first counselling session due to lesser marks as compared to those coming from private schools.
As per UT, this is why this policy was introduced so that government school kids don’t face a disadvantage while applying for Class 11 admissions.
As per officials, around 11,800 children in government schools appeared for the Class 10 examinations this year. UT also says this reservation system is likely to cut down dummy admissions in government schools.
