The Ministry of education scrapped several quotas for admission to Kendriya Vidyalayas on Wednesday, according to a circular from the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS).

Quotas for admission in several categories including Member of Parliament (MP) and District Magistrate (DM), the circular added.

Government sources were quoted by ANI as saying, “In a revolutionary step to streamline admissions in Kendriya Vidyalas and improve the quality of education, it has been decided to discontinue several discretionary quotas which were beyond the approved students' strength.”

The Union minister of education and chairman of KVS, Dharmendra Pradhan had conducted a review of the functioning of KVS recently in which it was seen that these quotas led to overcrowding in classrooms, affecting the pupil-teacher ratio and the quality of teaching-learing.

The discretionary quotas had also distorted the overall percentage of Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) reservations in the schools, reported ANI, quoting official sources.

“Keeping all these factors in mind, the decision has been taken to discontinue discretionary quotas of the Ministry of Education, Sponsoring Agency, MPs, etc. There was a long practice of recommending students by the Minister of Education, but the same has been discontinued,” the official was further quoted.

There were provisions of admissions of thousands under quotas of sponsoring agencies and chairpersons Vidyalaya Management Committees, that is, District Collectors, which have now been stopped. This will reportedly free up around 40,000 seats in KVs across the country.

However, an official of KV mentioned that the admissions under quota will still continue for some categories like single girl children, orphaned kids, etc.

“The provision of admissions will continue for a single girl child and those orphaned due to COVID under PM CARES Children scheme. A small number of discretionary quotas for wards of Kashmiri migrants, paramilitary forces, intelligence agencies, etc. still continue. Moreover, children of serving employees of KVs, meritorious children in fine arts, sports, recipients of bravery awards, etc. shall also continue to be provided admission under discretionary quota. Even these quotas will be implemented at the local level only, after careful examinations of relevant documents by school principals,” the KV official was quoted as saying.

The official added that these steps will ensure that KVs across the country become finest institutes which impart quality education in line with the National Educational Policy 2020.