65% of Class V, VI students from govt and aided schools across Gujarat appear for entrance test

The state education department had announced four types of schools to be set up on PPP mode. While 400 Gyan Setu day schools would be able to accommodate 500 students overall, these will start by admitting 70 students in Class VI in the first academic session of 2023-24.

Fifty Swami Vivekanand Gyan Shakti residential schools and 50 Swami Vivekanand Gyan Shakti tribal residential schools, with a capacity to accommodate 2,000 students each, will start by inducting 300 students each in the first year in Class VI. Also, 10 Raksha Shakti residential schools, which would have a capacity to induct 500 students, will admit 70 students the first year in Class VI.

While Gir Somnath district, at 50 per cent, saw most students who registered for the entrance test giving the same a miss, Tapi, at 71.51 per cent, witnessed the highest number of students who took the test.

Sitaram Baghel, a labourer from Gwalior, said the common entrance will get his son – a Class V student of Laxmipura Municipal School in Ahmedabad – admitted to Gyan Shakti and Gyan Setu schools easily. “I was told by the teachers about this test and that if my son gets into one of these schools, parents do not have to worry about anything, there will be no tension. The government will bear all expenses,” Sitaram told The Indian Express.

In Ahmedabad, among the 57,521 registered students, 39,754 or 69 per cent took the entrance.

Class V student Harshil from Odhav Municipal Gujarati School told her mother Kailashben Prajapati about the common entrance test. “My son told me that if he clears the exam, he will get admission in a private school,” Prajapati said.

However, parents like Gajesinh Nat, father of a Class V student from Gandhinagar Municipal School 2, are unaware of the purpose of the test. “I got a message in my phone from the teacher that my daughter should take the test, as it will ensure her a good future. I do not know anything beyond this,” he said.