Chandigarh residents find fault with quota criteria for Class XI admissions

Deepankar Sharda

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Chandigarh, June 29

The criteria for reserving 85 per cent seats for government school pass outs, and the rest 15 per cent for private school pass outs belonging to Chandigarh and other cities, for admission to Class XI is not going well with local residents.

The parents claim that no student, who passed from a private school, was given admission in the humanities stream, in the first counselling by the UT Education Department. All seats were given to the students who passed from government schools, the parents claimed.

While the department justified the decision, parents claimed that this will lead to chaos among local parents and the private schools will take full advantage of this while considering their children for Class XI admission.

The process for online admission to Class XI in government senior secondary schools of Chandigarh for the session 2023-24 started on May 24 and ended on June 13.

High demand for humanities

A total of 2,234 students applied under the 15 per cent quota, while 8,283 applied under the remaining 85 per cent (government school pass outs).

“We have till date given more than 16% of total seats to the non Chandigarh government school pass outs. Currently, there are no seats available in the arts stream. After the compartment result, if there are vacancies and after adjusting the government school pass outs in the humanities stream, these will be offered to the non Chandigarh government school pass outs,” Harsuhinder Pal Singh Brar, Director School Education, Chandigarh, said. He added: “All seats in humanities have been consumed by government school pass outs.”

Meanwhile, parents claimed that the department has deliberately delayed the process and the private schools have already started lectures for Class XI students. “This is wrong on the department’s part. Even the topper of the humanities stream is not getting admission in a government school. The private schools will take full advantage of this and will increase the fee. If the government is eyeing to promote its schools, it should shut the private schools. The local students are already suffering as students from other cities reach here and use all means to take advantage. This will lead to more chaos among the locals,” Aman, a parent, said.

“What is the use of teaching our wards in private schools if we cannot get them admitted into Class XI. We are paying hefty fees, and we continue to pay it all our life. Also, they should improve their teaching pattern to gain people’s trust. The department came up with a new issue as if the EWS quota, neighbourhood priority for admission to government schools and RTE were not enough,” Amit Manchanda, another parent, said.