No proposal to revive MP quota for admissions in KVs: Govt

The government is not considering reviving the quota for members of Parliament (MPs) for admission in Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs), Union ministry of education informed Parliament on Monday.

In a written response to a question raised by Biju Janata Dal (BJD) member Sarmistha Seth on the government’s plan to revive the discretionary quota that was scrapped last year, Union minister of state for education Annapurna Devi said, “There is no such proposal under consideration since the admission under some special provisions including Hon’ble members of Parliament’s quota were granted over and above sanctioned strength of the student strength of 40 per section, which was adversely affecting learning due to high pupil teacher ratio in classes.”

The Union government had last year scrapped the discretionary MP quota for admissions to the KVs, and released revised admission guidelines. Officials cited “excessive admissions” under the quota as the reason behind the move.

Under the MP quota, which was introduced in 1975, a parliamentarian could recommend a maximum of 10 students from their respective constituencies every academic year for admission in classes 1 to 9. With 543 MPs in the Lok Sabha and 245 in the Rajya Sabha, a total of 7,880 admissions every year were possible against this quota across 1,248 KVs in India.

In her response, the minister said that KVs are primarily opened to cater to the educational needs of the wards of transferable central government employees including Defence and Paramilitary personnel, central autonomous bodies, central public sector undertakings (PSUs) and central institutes of higher learning (IHL) by providing a common programme of education throughout the country.

“The National Educational Policy 2020 mandates reconfiguration of existing academic and administrative practices. This includes maintaining a healthy pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) at the foundational level to achieve desired learning outcomes,” she added.