Setback to students due to age bar for class 10th
Deepender Deswal
Tribune News Service
Hisar, April 4
A large number of students who have passed the ninth class could face a one year setback for no fault of theirs.
The Private School Sangh (PSS), representing private schools in the state, has alleged that the Board of School Education Haryana (BSEH), Bhiwani, has withheld the enrolment of such students who are now eligible for admission to class 10th.
PSS president Satyawan Kundu alleged that the BSEH has not issued the enrolment numbers of the students who are born on or after January 1, 2002. These students were not enrolled even after the school authorities’ uploaded complete information on the website. Only students born in 2002 and later were omitted while those born on or before December 31, 2001 were enrolled.
“This will affect more than 10, 000 students since they stand to lose one academic year,” he alleged.
“This clearly indicates that the board has introduced an age criteria for appearing in the class 10th. The schools were not informed about such criteria in advance. The students are uncertain whether they should proceed to the next class or they would have to repeat ninth class,” he said.
Teluram Ramyanwala, a private school owner, said many students were not enrolled apparently on account of the age criteria from the Board. There was no cap till the previous year when students born in 2001 were admitted to the next class.
Education board spokesperson Minakshi said she was not aware about any age limit for appearing in the examination for class 10th.
Sources in the board said there is no such age criterion. “As per the Right to Education Act, there is criteria to admit a five plus child in class one in the government schools but there is no minimum age criteria for appearing in class 10th”, he said.
This could be because of some technical glitches in the website which enrols the students in accepting the students’ details.
A board spokesperson said it had been decided to introduce an age bar of 14 years on admission to the class 10th from this academic session
The PSS will launch a state-wide agitation if the board refuses to enrol these students.
