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Over 6,000 candidates make the cut for meritorious schools in Punjab
Counselling for the second day of enrolment in meritorious schools held on Saturday in Punjab; total of 101 students enrolled in Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Patiala
: After a sluggish response to admissions in meritorious schools across Punjab in the last two years due to the Covid pandemic, over 6,000 government school students are eligible for enrolment in 11th and 12th class in 10 such academic institutes across the state for the 2022-23 session, the counselling for which is currently in process.
Around 18,000 students had appeared for the entrance exam this year in May, out of which a total of 6,266 students cleared the test, the results of which were announced on July 7. According to officials of the education department, there are around 4,600 seats in the total 10 meritorious schools in Punjab.
On Saturday, a total of 101 students got enrolled in the meritorious schools in Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Patiala on the second day of the counselling of the students held by the education department for admissions in class 11 and 12 at the Ludhiana admission centre.
The counselling for the 10 meritorious schools in Amritsar, Bathinda, Ferozepur, Gurdaspur, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, SAS Nagar, Patiala, Sangrur and Talwara was held in 22 centres across Punjab.
While, a total of 96 students got enrolled in Ludhiana meritorious school, including 46 boys and 50 girls, three students got admissions in Patiala school and two students got enrolled in Jalandhar school through counselling conducted at the Ludhiana centre.
The Ludhiana meritorious school has a total of 500 seats, including 200 for boys and 300 seats for girls, following the criteria of 40:60 ratio.
While there are a total of 120 seats for boys in the Non-Medical stream in the Ludhiana meritorious school, 180 seats are reserved for the girls. In both the Medical and Commerce streams, 40 seats are for the boys and 60 seats are reserved for girls respectively.
According to officials in the education department, those who cleared the entrance exam have been given the liberty to visit any of the 22 counselling centres across the state to get their enrolment done.
Vishal Mittal, district coordinator, Management Information System (MIS), said that the education department has conducted the counselling for class 11 after three years and have received tremendous response.
Counselling session broadcast live
The counselling session was broadcast live on the online portal of the education department.
“To ensure complete transparency, special waiting rooms have been made available for the parents where projectors have been installed so that they can view the counselling process live,” Mittal said.
He said that at times students don’t have internet facilities available at home and fail to keep a tab of the counselling dates online, thus the MIS staff also made calls to those who didn’t turn up as per their schedule.
“A few students got to know about their counselling after they were called by our staff,” Mittal said.
In a first
The education department for the first time conducted counselling for Women Headed Households (WHH) and BPL card holders of private schools affiliated with Punjab School Education Board under the reserve category along with Atta Dal Scheme card holders on August 4.
A total of 22 students were given admissions under the private schools category in Ludhiana along with seven students who were enrolled under WHH.
In a special case, the WHH scheme turned out to be a boon for 16-year-old Nimanshi, who scored 76% marks in class 10.
After losing her parents, she along with her elder sister lived with their maternal grandmother, who also died last year and now her elder sister Vishali looks after her.
“We want to facilitate all the deserving students so that they can avail the opportunity to brighten their future. Considering Vishali as the guardian, Nimanshi was given admission under WHH after we consulted her case with the head office,” said Vishwakirat Kahlon, principal, meritorious school, Ludhiana. ENDS
