Govt fails to admit 260 meritorious girls in residential schools - After 4-month delay, these students asked to opt for other schools

Tuesday, 19/08/2014

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2014/20140819/punjab.htm#14

Muktsar : The state government’s claims to give admission to all the students who attained over 80 per cent marks in the Class X exams in residential schools have fallen flat. As many as 260 girl students from across the state have not been given the benefit.

Further, these meritorious girls have now been told to get admissions in government/aided/affiliated/associated schools of the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB), as per a fresh circular issued by the PSEB on August 12.

The circular, in possession of The Tribune, reads, “Due to some reasons, 260 girl students who had got above 80 per cent marks could not get admission in the residential schools. For them, the Board has fixed August 30 as last date for taking admission in other schools.”

Terming it as a cruel joke on these girls, some local teachers said over four months have passed since the new academic session began but the state government was telling the left out students now to get admission somewhere else.

“As many as 22 girls awaiting admission in residential schools are from Mukstar district. Many of them had not even got provisional admission in any other school. If they get admission somewhere else now, how will they be able to keep up with other students. The session for Class XI began in April,” said Pawan Kumar, a government teacher, who is the district president of the Democratic Employees’ Front.

He added, “Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal should find out some way to fulfill his promise to give admission to all meritorious students in residential schools.”

Jaswinder Singh, a leader of government employees, said, “The meritorious students had filled the admission forms in the first week of June and the list was declared on July 29 but names of as many as 260 girls were not in it. When the state government had collected the admission forms, it should have at that time calculated the total number of seats available and the number of aspirants.”

They further informed that the basic problem coming before the authorities concerned was about the shortage of hostel accommodation for girls. The accommodation is available for 1,800 girls in six residential schools, having the capacity to accommodate 300 girls in each hostel. On the other hand, as the number of meritorious boys is lesser than that of girls, all the eligible boys have been given admission in these schools, they added.

Under the Society for Promotion of Education for Poor and Meritorious Students of Punjab, the state government had decided to provide quality education to meritorious students and help them prepare for competitive exams. For this purpose, special residential schools were opened in Bathinda, Ludhiana, Mohali, Jalandhar, Amritsar and Patiala.