punjab

Updated: Dec 21, 2015 18:05 IST

Parents who fall in the general category are worried that their wards may lose out on admission in missionary schools due to reserved seats and a large number of admission forms being submitted to schools this year.

The top four missionary schools — St John’s High School, Sector 26; St Anne’s Convent School, Sector 32; Carmel Convent School, Sector 9; and Sacred Heart Public School, Sector 26 — are minority institutes and have reservation for kids from Christian families.

Other than that, they have seats reserved in the name of alumni, sibling, staff quota and management. As a result, in the 2013-14 academic session, only 25 students could take admission in Carmel Convent School from the general category.

Carmel Convent School principal Maria Swati, said, “Since we are a minority school we have to cater to Christians who apply first, after which we give preference to staff children, siblings and the management quota according to submitted guidelines.”

Talking about students who apply through general seats, she said, “We usually try and enrol at least 40-45 students in the general category regardless.”

St John’s High School and Carmel Convent School even enrol EWS students despite them not being under the 25% compulsion since they are minority institutes.

Due to this, various parents are planning to apply and take admission in lesser sought-after schools.

Yogesh Rana, a parent and resident of Sector 22 said, “Learning from past experiences, this time I have decided to admit my child at Bal Niketan School. There have been multiple instances in the past where schools have reserved categories due to which general category students like my son were eligible only for a handful of seats in top schools.”

Another worried parent Namrata Kaur said she wished the education department intervened in the process. “I wish the department could play a role and overlook the unprecedented reservation of seats so everyone stands an equal chance,” Kaur said.

Private schools will initiate the process of holding draws in January next year due to winter vacations.

Pvt schools violating norms

With nursery admissions to officials kickstart on Monday, few tricity schools have already started the sale of admission forms. In clear violation of the UT education department guidelines which state that forms must be made available in schools free of cost, few private schools are selling the forms ranging from Rs 50 to Rs 100. While St’ Kabir

is charging Rs 100 for the form, Delhi Public School is charging Rs 50 for the same. Meanwhile, Vivek High School’s prospectus costs a total of Rs 500 although chairperson says it should be available free of cost. While school admission form’s can be downloaded from the official websites, there are private schools which haven’t uploaded the form online, leaving parents with no option but to purchase forms from school.