Karnataka - Bangalore   

School admission policy may be delayed this year

Bangalore: Even as many private schools have started giving out admission applications for the next academic year, a high-level committee set up in the last week of August to frame stringent admission guidelines is yet to submit its report, although it was scheduled to do so by the end of October.

The policy framed by the panel was meant to come into force from the next academic year. But the delay might translate to many private schools, which have already started preliminary admission process, getting away with it for one more year.

According to Education Department officials, the six-member high-level committee had met twice so far and looked at various models of admission.

More interviews and debates need to be held before the report could be finalised, said the official. It may take one more month before the report is submitted.

The panel, headed by the Commissioner of Public Instruction, was constituted to frame a comprehensive policy on admissions from pre-nursery to pre-university level, streamlining every step of the admission process and curbing the admission menace. In the terms of reference issued to the committee, the Government had held out promise that the policy would put an end to the scramble for applications in elite schools, interviews for parents and children and high donations.

The model for pre-nursery admission, as per the terms of reference, was to be the “Delhi model of admissions”, framed by former CBSE Chairman Ashok Ganguly.

As per the model, admission should be based on a 100-point formula which takes into account several criteria such as distance from the child’s home to school, educational status of the parents and the socio-economic background.

It has set guidelines on time of admission and transparency in the process. It strictly bans interviews of parents and children before admissions.

Even as per the prevailing rules of the Education Department, admission process cannot begin before April. This rule is flouted with impunity by most private educational institutions.

“Till the policy is in place we will push schools to follow the letter of law under the prevailing rules,” said Commissioner of Public Instruction Kumar Naik.

Terms of reference issued to the committee on Pre-University admissions includes a proposal made by a Legislature Committee in 2003-2004 to curtail the trend of private colleges shunning low-scoring students as a model.

The 23-member Legislature Committee had said that private colleges should observe a quota system in admissions and not prefer only high-scoring students.

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