Parents protest ‘minimal’ seats for open category at St Kabir School

More than 2,000 people had gathered in the school for the draw of lots against 1,250 applications received for the admission.

Once the draw of lot was conducted and the applicants chosen by the parents among applicants themselves,they started to raise objections on the transparency and reservation criterion fixed by the school.

Anticipating such a situation,the authorities had already informed the police and UT Education Department who were present during the draw. As the number of applicants present on the school premises was huge,the school authorities had called in more police force to control the situation.

“If this would be the case with other schools as well,where will we take our children who do not fall under any of these categories. We do not protest against the reservation,but against such a huge number of seats under reservation,” lamented one of the parents.

This was the first year the school had conducted a draw of lots. In the previous years,the admission to entry class was conducted through a screening process,which is not allowed any more.

Out of 92,the draw of lots was conducted for only 18 seats as the remaining 74 were reserved under various categories. These included 40 for siblings,8 for alumni,4 for school staff and 22 under the Economically Weaker Section (EWS). These 22 seats have been kept vacant by the school authorities until any final decision on the 25 per cent Economically Weaker Section quota under the Right to Education.

While,the school authorities claimed that they were very transparent in their entire procedure.

“Right from the school website,newspaper advertisements,circular with the admission form and school notice board,we have made the reservation criterion clear,”justified the school administrator Gurpreet Singh Bakshi.

We have followed the guidelines laid down by Ministry of Human Resource Development and Union Territory Administration that allow the schools to fix their criteria for the remaining 75 per cent seats,” said Bakshi.