18 seats vacant in meritorious school

Neeraj Bagga

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Tribune News Service

Amritsar, July 21

Eighteen seats are still lying vacant in the Senior Secondary Residential School for Meritorious Students here that has witnessed the admissions of 482 students till now.

DEO (Secondary) Satinderbir Singh said the school authorities would hold another counselling session on July 27 to fill these seats.

He said nine students left the school, citing homesickness while an equal number of them did not report to the school after the interview.

He said now, the next 18 students figuring on the waiting list of merit students would be called for interview. Earlier, counselling for admission to the school was held on July 21. The counselling centre here has interviewed the students from adjoining districts of Tarn Taran, Gurdaspur and Pathankot, besides Amritsar. The local meritorious school has 500 seats, including 300 for non-medical, 100 for medical and an equal number for commerce. The state government-run school is registered as ‘Society for promotion of quality education for poor and meritorious students of Punjab’.

The students of government schools affiliated with the Punjab School Education Board who have attained 80 per cent marks or above in Class X could apply for admission in these schools. These schools have come up at Amritsar (GNDU campus), Patiala (Punjabi University), Bathinda (Giani Zail Singh Engineering and Technology College), Ludhiana (Government College for Boys), Jalandhar (Sports School) and Mohali (Sector 70, opposite Mataur village).

The Amritsar Improvement Trust constructed a double-storeyed building with 20 classrooms, two separate hostels for girls and boys, besides residences for 10 staff members of the school and a principal on the campus of Guru Nanak Dev University.

To strengthen education at the senior secondary level, the state government started the admission process for its six smart residential schools established for meritorious students who would be imparted quality education for Class XI and XII free of cost. Besides, the syllabus of Class XI and XII (English medium) prescribed by the board, the students would be provided special teaching classes for preparation of various competitions like JEE, medical entrance tests, CLAT/ CPET and other undergraduate tests held by universities in the country. These classes also provided free of cost. The curriculum had been designed to build overall personality of students.

Special career counsellors would also be available to assist the students from the initial stage. The curriculum would be in English medium with help from teachers to translate it into local languages.