Ludhiana: Only 9 girl students join state schools under reserved quota

Vishal Kumar, MIS coordinator, informed that the eight girl students from private schools secured admission at various meritorious schools through the Ludhiana centre

Only nine girls secured admission during the second round of counselling held under the reserved category for the Senior Secondary Residential Schools for Meritorious Students on Monday. The admitted girls are from reserved categories of women headed households (WHH), private school students, and specially-abled candidates, from Ludhiana.

Students during counselling for admissions into Class 11 of state meritorious school at the Ludhiana centre on Monday. (Manish/HT)

Vishal Kumar, MIS coordinator, informed that the eight girl students from private schools secured admission at various meritorious schools through the Ludhiana centre. Among them, one student was admitted to the commerce stream at Ludhiana Meritorious School, six students were allocated seats at SAS Nagar school, with five opting for the non-medical stream and one for commerce, and another student chose the non-medical stream at Talwara school. Additionally, one girl student was admitted under the WHH category.

The eligibility criteria for reserved categories require SC/ST candidates to have minimum 65% marks in Class 10, while other reserved categories must meet a 70% threshold. Moreover, only Class 10 certificates downloaded from the Punjab School Education Board’s DigiLocker portal, properly signed and stamped by the school principal, are accepted for verification.

To encourage diversity, 10% of seats in meritorious schools are reserved for students from recognised private and aided schools in Punjab.

However, principal Satwant Kaur of Ludhiana Meritorious School revealed that around 90 seats across all the categories are still vacant at the Ludhiana centre. “We expect these seats to be filled in the upcoming round of counselling, which will be announced soon,” she said. Kaur added that no students from the differently-abled category attended the counselling at Ludhiana. “The final number of students admitted here will only be clear once they officially join the school,” she stated.