Schools justify exam for Class I entry

However,the Education Department is not buying the argument. Deputy education director of Pune division Sunil Magar said the schools were drawing convenient conclusions from the GR. “The schools will face stringent action if they admit students through entrance exam. I am going to issue a letter to both the schools on Tuesday,” he told The Indian Express on Friday.

St Vincent’s and Loyola had conducted entrance exam for admission to Class I last Saturday. Students’ wing of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena objected to the move following which the schools stayed the exams. Following the incident,education board chief of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) Ramchandra Jadhav sent a letter to all the city schools,including St Vincent’s and Loyola,not to conduct entrance exam as it was “against the norms”.

However,on Friday,principal of Loyola Father James Thorat and principal of St Vincent’s Father Mario Fernandes said both the schools had not cancelled the entrance exams and the admissions would be made according to the merit-list prepared on the basis of written test and interviews after that.

Thorat said the schools received the letter of PMC education board on Wednesday. “We met Jadhav on Thursday and he gave us the copy of the GR. There is a clause in the GR that says the schools should prepare a list of students as per merit to admit them in schools. There is no mention of how to decide the merit. So we are conducting the entrance exam to decide the merit,” he said. “We have devised our own mechanism for evaluation but we have not violated the rules,” he added.

Fernandes said St Vincent’s and Loyola had a capacity of 150 and 120 seats respectively at Class I level. “We receive around 400 to 600 applications for these seats. We have to conduct exam as we cannot accommodate all,” he said.

However,Jadhav has sent a letter to St Vincent’s School,saying the school doesn’t fall under his jurisdiction as it comes under the Pune Cantonment Board. The letter said the principal can take decision as per rules in his capacity. When contacted,Jadhav said,“We can act only in the PMC area and therefore we can take action against Loyola if we receive any complaints against it.”