Schools not admitting locals to face action
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 24 July 2012 22:11 IST
Goa government has warned of a disciplinary action against schools which do not admit local students from next year, as per the percentage fixed by the education department.
The issue was brought up by Fatorda independent MLA Vijay Sardesai in the Assembly today.
He said the Presentation convent, which had moved out of the city, had refused to admit a single child from the village in their school.
Chief minister Manohar Parrikar full agreed with him, stating that he would not tolerate such kind of discrimination when the village land is used but villagers are not admitted.
The issue has become pertinent especially with the city schools, which are getting shifted in the suburban areas due to traffic congestion.
Parrikar said he would fix a percentage to admit the local students after revising the existing guidelines.
The existing guidelines give 30 marks to the applicant student for admission who lives within three kilometers, 25 within three to five kms, 20 within five to eight kms, 15 within eight to 10 and no marks beyond 10 kms.
“Most of the city schools fall within the radius of one kilometer and this guideline thus becomes useless”, noted Parrikar, who is also the education minister.
He also observed that it was nothing great about these schools in scoring good results when they were restricting students securing only high percentage.
Opposition leader Pratapsing Rane however suggested to differentiate between city schools and village schools while preparing the guidelines since most of the schools within the city are located within the radius of one km.
Former chief minister Digambar Kamat also pointed out that the average scoring students in the cities are suffering because of the increasing trend of admitting only the cream among the student community.
