Govt English medium schools receive three times more applications than available seats

Applications for admissions received by Mahatma Gandhi English medium government schools in Rajasthan, which were first established in 2019, are nearly three times the available seats, said officials on Tuesday.

According to senior officials of the education department, the schools have received around 60,000 applications, the majority of which are for Class 1.

“We have received nearly 60,000 applications for the newly established Mahatma Gandhi State Government Schools (English medium), while the total seats stand at 18,093. The demand is much higher than the total available seats,” said Sourabh Swami, Director, Secondary Education Department, Bikaner.

He added that 33 such schools were initially started in 2019 and at present there are more than 200 such schools. 168 new schools were added last year.

While the admission process is conducted through lottery, at present over 3,709 students are wards of the school staff, said officials.

“We started initiatives such as E-Kaksha last year during the Covid-19 pandemic, under which students could study via online classes. School teachers also regularly visited the houses of students even in remote villages to check whether they were studying and completing their homework. A large number of parents got to know about and the quality of our schools through this initiative, which has resulted in overflow of applications this year,” said Swami.

He added that apart from quality, fees dispute with private schools is another reason why many parents are choosing to enrol their children in such schools.

Swami said that education in these schools is also free.

“Private schools are not budging from their stand of collecting fees for the last year as well. Due to the effects of the pandemic on their economic status, many parents are unable to pay fees and want to shift their children to government schools. Many are applying in the government English medium schools this year because of this very aspect,” said Abhishek Jain Bittu, state spokesperson, Sanyukta Abhibhavak Sangh, Rajasthan, a platform for parents whose children study in schools.

Officials said that at present more than 73,000 students are enrolled in these schools and with the new admission this year, the number is expected to cross 91,000.

When the schools had started in 2019, they had Classes from 1-8 and since then they have been adding one class each year to accommodate promoted students, said officials.

They will be gradually be increased to standard-12, officials said.