The hostels of all 10 government residential students for meritorious students in Punjab have been turned into dedicated quarantine facilities. (Source: File Photo)

The school campus is quiet, missing the usual hustle and bustle of students, as the principal sits alone in his office. A mask lying on his table, he is busy listening to some audio recordings on a WhatsApp group. Morning prayer, thought of the day, news headlines, national anthem — this is how retired colonel Amarjit Singh, principal of Government Senior Secondary Residential School for Meritorious Students, Ludhiana, attends the school’s virtual online ‘morning assembly’ every day.

As early as 6 am, audio clips start trickling in from his students in class-wise WhatsApp groups and are further forwarded by their class teachers to the principal as per their duty rosters.

Behind the school campus with its vacant classrooms and laboratories, the girls’ hostel bears a signboard at the entrance: ‘Saare marizan nu benti hai ki aapas vich 1 meter da faasla rakh ke kharo ja baitho ji’ (All patients are requested to please maintain a distance of at least 1 metre while standing or sitting). The 600-bedded hostel is now a dedicated Covid quarantine facility in Ludhiana, for suspected and confirmed asymptomatic patients, as well as those returning to Punjab from other states or countries. With the recent spike in cases in Punjab, orders have been issued to convert it into a 500-bedded quarantine facility from the initial 200. The boys hostel in front of the campus is being used to house paramedical staff and other health facilitators, as well as a sample-collection facility.

The recent spike in cases in Punjab also means that school hostels aren’t going to be vacated anytime soon and this is a worry for meritorious students especially from rural areas, who take admission in these special residential schools which provide free education, boarding, lodging, food, books and most importantly, extra-coaching for competitive exams in science and commerce streams to class XI and XII students.

The hostels of all 10 government residential students for meritorious students in Punjab — Ludhiana, Amritsar, Sangrur, Bathinda, Jalandhar, Patiala, Mohali, Gurdaspur, Ferozepur and Talwara (Hoshiarpur) — have been turned into dedicated quarantine facilities. While the admission process for class XI in these schools is open and online registrations are ongoing, the authorities have no idea when hostels will be back in possession of the education department and when new students will be allowed to arrive, if at all this year.

Started during the SAD-BJP tenure in 2014-15, the government senior secondary residential schools in Punjab (class XI and XII), were conceptualised with an aim to provide extra coaching and preparation facilities to meritorious students who pass out class X from government schools (Punjab School Education Board) so they can compete with private school students (from CBSE etc) in competitive exams such as JEE, NEET, CAT among others. Former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, while terming the project as his ‘dream’, had said that “the government had taken on the task to prepare these government school students, mostly from financially weaker backgrounds for competition at international level and admissions in professional colleges’”.

Run under the ‘Society for Promotion of Quality Education for Poor and Meritorious Children’, the chief minister is the ex-officio chairman of the governing body of the society and chief secretary is the chairman of its executive committee.

Initially, class X students from government schools scoring more than 80 per cent marks were eligible to apply for admissions in these schools who further appear for a Common Entrance Test (CET) in three subjects — English, maths and science. But with a gradual decrease in the number of students applying and those clearing CET, seats started going vacant and eligibility percentage was lowered.

Admissions this year (2020-21): 15,000 apply for class XI

The eligibility criteria to apply for class XI this year is ‘Grade B+’ (71 to 80% marks). (Representational image)

Nine residential meritorious schools (except Talwara) have 500 seats each for class XI (science and commerce streams) while Talwara has 100 seats offering humanities stream. Admissions are also open for 50 seats in class IX started at Talwara School last year.

The eligibility criteria to apply for class XI this year is ‘Grade B+’ (71 to 80% marks) for general category and ‘Grade B’ (61 to 70%) for reserved category in class X, for PSEB students. Similarly, it is B1 for general category and B2 for reserved category, for CBSE students.

But 90 per cent seats are reserved for Punjab government schools and Dashmesh, Adarsh and Model school students who mostly come from financially weaker backgrounds. Ten per cent are for government aided and private school students.

“We have already received more than 15,000 applications for 4,600 seats (for class XI in ten schools) and around 1,500 applications (for class IX at Talwara). We are yet to compile final data as the last date to apply online is June 15,” said IPS Malhotra, assistant project director for the meritorious schools, Punjab.

“We have to follow social distancing norms and practise all precautions for holding the Common Entrance Test (CET) ahead. As of now, maximum students are interested in Ludhiana and Bathinda schools. Most come from rural backgrounds,” he said.

Malhotra said that as of now they have no idea when the hostels will be back in possession of the education department.

“Online teaching is no substitute or match for classroom teaching and if things aren’t back to normal by July, their studies will be badly hit. We are running online classes for class XII so that students are at least in touch with syllabus. The priority is to complete the admission process first and hold CET safely,” he said.

Ludhiana school principal Amarjit Singh said online classes are ongoing for 493 students who have entered class XII this year. “We send them objective type questionnaires on Google Forms and they submit them back,” he said, adding that every year, new students are welcomed on campus in July first week but this time, it is uncertain. “Till we do not have hostels, how can we call them,” he said.

“Seeing a spike in cases, we are upgrading it to a 500-bedded facility to be prepared for everything. It is free of cost quarantine facility except for NRIs who are being charged Rs 300 a day,” said Amarinder Singh Malhi, SDM (west) Ludhiana.

Till Friday, 48 patients were quarantined at Ludhiana school hostel including 36 positive asymptomatic (jail inmates, undertrials, local residents) etc and seven NRIs.