There has been a regular discussion that reservation has not been followed properly. (File image) Days after Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan called for a debate on the continuation of MP quota in Kendriya Vidyalaya admissions, interventions by BJP as well as Opposition party members in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday indicated that any move to scrap the quota will face stiff resistance.
The matter came up in the Upper House after BJP MP Sushil Modi sought to know if the government plans to end the discretionary quota of the MPs and the district magistrates across the country. Minister of State for Education Annapurna Devi responded that a decision will be taken based on consultation with all MPs.
“A decision (on raising the quotas per MP or scrapping it) will be taken after discussing the matter with leaders of all parties. The Education Ministry will take all suggestions into account,” Devi told the Rajya Sabha, responding to a clutch of queries from members.
According to response provided by the government to a written query by Modi, during the year 2021-22, 7301 students including SC-609, ST-212, OBC-1811 and EWS – 55 have been admitted in KVs through MP quotas.
The response also shows that the Education Minister’s discretionary quota in this regard was not used in 2021-22. In 2020-21, 12,295 students – including 1105 SC, 157 ST, 2911 OBC and 190 EWS — were admitted through the minister’s quota.
Raising a supplementary question, Modi specifically sought to know if the government was also planning to do away with the discretionary quota on admissions available with the district magistrates. The annual intake of students through the DM quota is around 22,000, Modi said.
AAP MP Sanjay Singh said that the quota under which each MP can recommend 10 admissions was not enough to meet the demand from their constituents, an observation echoed by BJP MP Vivek Thakur.
“Parents whose children are capable in studying in GP Goenka or Delhi Public School do not come to us. Poor people do,” Thakur said, suggesting that the unused quota of the minister be distributed among the MPs so that the size of their discretionary quota get enhanced.
Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, an autonomous body under the Ministry of Education, oversees the 1,248 KVs that are spread across 36 states and Union Territories. There are over 14,35,562 students studying in these central government schools.
Official figures show that despite the Education Minister not using his discretionary quota for admissions in 2021-22, the number of admissions through other quotas including that of the MPs and DMs among others stood at 1,75,261 last year.
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