Discretionary detox

It is an understatement to say that Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal was left an unadulterated mess by his predecessors,Arjun Singh and Murli Manohar Joshi. He had some plans of reform as he took office,the rest he has been thinking up as he encounters problems in their entirety. Even as the HRD ministry is looking to change the contours of education in India,the plan to scrap the discretionary quota allowed to the ministry,MPs and others to recommend more than 1,200 students for admission to Kendriya Vidyalayas spread across the country is welcome.

Indeed,this discretionary quota was one of the first founts of trouble for Sibal. Immediately after taking over,he was flooded with requests for admissions,leading him to discover apart from his predecessors controversial last-minute appointments that Arjun Singh had used up 1,000 of the 1,200 KV seats in his last days in office. After having to refuse requests routed even through the PMO,this year,the ministry has not entertained any,deciding instead to scrap the provision. Arjun Singh had revived the mechanism after Joshis reintroduction of it had been struck down by the Delhi high court. Of course,Singh raised the HRD ministers discretionary quota to 1,200 from Joshis 1,000,albeit placing such admissions in the hands of a three-member committee.

Some MPs may feel relieved at not having requests breathing down their necks,some may construe the flood of requests as testament to the quality of KV education,some may thus call for the number of KVs 981,with 10-lakh students admitted in the last academic session itself to be added to. KVs matter because they were designed for the wards of transferable Central government employees. Whether that affirms the quality of education or not,discretionary quotas tend to play into chains of patronage and corruption. New criteria to replace the quota system are under consideration; these are supposed to allow deserving cases to pass while ensuring equity in the process. Revision of the KV admissions process was in fact overdue. It is hoped that the alternative will turn out to be wholesome nourishment and not merely an antidote.