Class-11 admission: Counselling ends, 200 seats vacant in state’s meritorious schools
SANGRUR : Even as the last round of counselling to get admission to Class 11 at 10 meritorious schools of the state got over on July 24, as many as 219 seats in medical, non-medical and commerce streams are still lying vacant.
Of the 10 meritorious schools in the state, total seats have been filled only in Bathinda, Ludhiana and Talwara (Hoshiarpur).
The Society for Promotion of Quality Education for Poor and Meritorious Students conducted second counselling as 811 seats — 453 of boys and 358 of girls — seats were not filled after the first counselling in June this year. While 358 seats of girls got filled in the second counselling, 219 of the 453 seats for boys, majority of them in medical stream, are still vacant.
As per a list uploaded on the meritorious schools’ website, 27 seats were vacant in Amritsar, 40 (23 medical and 17 non-medical) in Ferozepur, three in Jalandhar, five in Patiala, 24 in Sangrur, three in Mohali and 117 in Gurdaspur. The list, however, was removed later.
Each meritorious school offers 500 seats in Class 11, majority of them in medical, non-medical and commerce streams. The only school that offers the humanities stream is Talwara in Hoshiarpur.
The meritorious schools, a pet project of the previous Shiromani Akali Dal-bharatiya Janata Party (SAD-BJP) government, earlier admitted only those students who secured 80 per cent marks in Class 10.
But the education department later brought down the eligibility criteria from 80% to 55% marks for general category students and 50% for those from scheduled castes and scheduled tribes (SC/ST). They conduct entrance examination.
Balbir Chand Longowal, district president, Democratic
Teachers’ Union, said, “The government is not hiring adequate number of teachers for these schools. Teachers from other government schools are sent on deputation there. Also, these schools have been in the thick of several controversies in the past. The reports of shortage of food items in their canteens also caused a dent on their image.”
“Over 200 seats of medical and other streams are lying vacant. Some students have not joined the schools after their enrollment,” said Parshant Kumar Goyal, director general, school education (Punjab).