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HomeIndiaGovernanceExclusive: Smriti Irani, Javadekar tried cornering 35,000 Kendriya Vidyalaya seats in 3...

Exclusive: Smriti Irani, Javadekar tried cornering 35,000 Kendriya Vidyalaya seats in 3 years, 25 times their quota

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HRD minister has yearly quota of 450 seats in KVs. Smriti Irani and Prakash Javadekar sent 35,685 in 3 years.

New Delhi: Over the last three years, human resource development ministers Smriti Irani and Prakash Javadekar have sought to give away a humongous 35,685 seats in the Kendriya Vidyalaya (KV) schools under a special HRD minister’s ‘discretionary’ quota. This is about 25 times—or roughly 2,500 per cent—over the quota ceiling of 450 seats per year.

The board that manages the central government’s prestigious KVs admitted half of the ministers’ candidates and is struggling with the rest.

Important point: The board—the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sanghatan (KVS)—is headed by none else than the HRD minister. And the quota limit of 450 was also fixed by Irani when she was HRD minister in 2014.

According to information accessed by ThePrint under the RTI Act:

· In her first full academic year as HRD minister in 2015-16, Irani recommended admissions to 5,128 students against her quota of 450 such admissions. Of these, the KVS could admit only 3,500.

· The next year, 2016-17, Irani pushed 15,065 cases for admission against the same quota of 450 seats. This year, the KVS could admit more than 8,000 students recommended by the minister.

· Javadekar, who took over from Irani in July 2016, recommended 15,492 admissions for the academic year 2017-18 until 10 October 2017 while his quota remained at 450 seats. Although KVS has not yet compiled data for the number of admissions given under the minister’s quota, sources in the know said it is expected to be around 8,000 this year as well.

“In the following years (2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18) more than entitlement recommendations were received from MHRD (Ministry of Human Resource Development),” KVS said in its RTI reply.

Power of the minister

Generally, the KVS tries to give admission to all cases recommended by the minister. However, it has to stop after a point considering class strength and the capacity of a school.

KVS rules say the KVS board of governors has to approve the admission of students under the HRD minister’s discretionary quota in excess of the limit of 450. The twist though is that this board of governors is headed by the HRD minister.

Both Irani and Javadekar did not respond to queries from ThePrint despite repeated reminders. The KVS commissioner also did not reply to requests for comment.

But official sources told ThePrint that the KVS had red-flagged the issue to the minister’s office each time the quota ceiling was breached. The KVS, however, refused to share any information on this aspect in its RTI reply.

Schools in demand

There are more than 1,100 Kendriya Vidyalayas catering to the schooling needs of children of central government employees with transferable jobs. These schools admit about 1.5 lakh new students every year, about 1 lakh of them in class 1.

Besides the HRD minister, MPs can recommend up to 10 admissions per year and as many as 8,000 admissions are done each year from the MPs’ quota.

The special dispensation quota for the HRD minister was started sometime in 1975. While KVS said it did not have old records on admissions details, it said the quota has been exceeded consistently since 2014-15.

The Kendriya Vidyalayas have always been much sought after and every HRD minister has had to deal with a pile of admission requests. The discretionary quota was set at 1,000 admissions until Arjun Singh, who was HRD minister in UPA-1, raised it to 1,200.

His successor Kapil Sibal on the other hand went on to surrender the quota, arguing for complete meritocracy. Pallam Raju, who followed Sibal, is said to have recommended some admissions without reviving the quota.

When Irani took over as HRD minister in 2014, she revived the quota with a ceiling of 450 admissions, but went on to breach it herself. Javadekar ended up outdoing Irani even though he claimed he wanted to reform the KV system.

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33 COMMENTS

  1. those who r only merely poorly degreebased so called qualified r not educated so how can we expect tranceparency in their deeds.this is an indication that fateful days in education system r nearing

  2. KV, Airforce station,Thane, Mumbai is operating from a building which is declared dangerous by MES. Classes are being conducted on school play ground, laboratory for only two hours. Parents and students are suffering a lot. Despite approaching authorities no one is paying heed to the parents cry. Please escalate the matter.

  3. Hahaha quota, BJP minister can do any thing and every thing being in power. Moreover this is not corruption, this is promoting education among deserving masses. I’d this not true ,?

  4. Merit is not considered for admission to KVS but Minister’s recommendation required.By this many deserving candidates are surpassed.This quota system to be abolished all together.

  5. In KV, Rohtak, studies remain perennially disturbed due to shortage of teachers, water purifying system is non fictional causing students suffering from jaundice.
    What are the HRD minister and officials doing to serve the cause of the students. In fact the results of this school in board exams is merely average.

  6. It is no doubt that Ministers like Smriti Irani and most others in this government have no respect for merit. That is because they themselves have doubtful academic records. They are arbitrary and believe in obliging those pursuing their ideology and belonging to certain caste and community. This is the best way to take the country on the road to ruin.

  7. What would have happened is this:
    1.) HRD Minister receives letters from public from all over India. Minister forwards the letter to the concerned KV with the note ‘please do the needful under the rules.’
    2.) If there are vacant seats, then the KV school gives seat to the person mentioned in the ‘forwarded’ letter. If not, they ignore it.
    So, every forwarded letter is NOT recommendation.
    Also, Pls put up copies of your RTI and the reply received under the same RTI. That will tell the truth.

  8. The politicians and babus in this country are a new class of looters. Politicians and babus are milking this nation dry and treat the common men as their slaves. All the taxes paid by the citizens are used up by these corrupt, crook and criminal class. All the GST, income tax, service tax, import duty and every single penny extorted from the common men goes to the pay and perks of these white elephants. The common men is toiling relentlessly so that these elephants can enjoy.
    PM Modi is also increasing their pay to lakhs of rupees though they are worthless and useless bunch of corrupt men. Every time the taxes are increased we are made to bleed for the inefficiency, curruption and incompetence of these blood sucking parasites. All the taxes paid by the citizens are used for the benefit of the corrupt and criminal politicians, judges and babus while common men is left to rot in misery and poverty.

  9. If the class strength is beyond the norms how we can accept a quality education. Govt should open more Kvs and quality govt schools so that a quality of education can be ensure a good quality of education

  10. Defence personnel who move frequently during service face a difficult time admitting their children at every new statuon. KVs were raised to help out such govt servants, but faujis have to beg for their rights at these schools. Even the Station Commander, who has to help the Schools in their needs, has no say in the admission process, while local candidates are admitted in an unknown way.

  11. I appretiate to bring this news of corruption of our polititians.we should have a system where our polititians are accountable or else they will loot our country irrrspective of party.

  12. Kendriya vidyalaya is a reputed scool of central Government but behind this there is some ugly picture of teachers, some of them are not dedicated to their work because of their job security,attractive salary and other facilities and previlages. Some of by chance they are teachers but a few are by profession. Contratchual teachers are harassed and step motheriy attitude also shown by some Nonsense principal. and staff
    members in some school. Other are creating indiscriminate between permanent and Contratchual. Here Guardians comlain are ignored. Only the name is big but work is nasty.

  13. Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangthan had worked out wonderful chemistry in administering KV,s and absolutely there was no interference from any body. My own experience is, when I joined the organisation there were only 60 schools and when I left the organisation ,it rose to 1025.In fact we did not care politicians.Organisation respected our views.mostly everything was transparent.

  14. Deeply pained to know this. Sheer abuse of power. Had always held Ms. Irani and Mr. Javdekar in high esteem. My respect for Ms. Irani and Mr. Javdekar is no more the same. The opposition should raise this issue instead of other frivolous issues it has been raising all along.

  15. All these high moral grounds taken by politicians of all parties are meant to fool the common citizens. The lawmakers today are the biggest law breakers. It would be interesting to analyse the percentage of serious law breakers amongst politicians and amongst common public.

  16. Quota?which minister will leave this minting machine ?? And they re talking about cashless India ? All cash with corrupt set of ministers we will be definitely left Cashless b..tna maro in Bjp ealon ko ki yeh kidi ke angan mein dikhai. N ahi degi ….pu ll down this govt .

  17. It is a democratic India. So why the politicians act like virtual kings? I strongly hate these type of cowardice act. Are politicians mentally handicapped? How can they violate the rules by applying political power? It is disgusting and highly demoralizing. A true politician never do this type of activities. MERIT is the only and absolute requirement in admission. I must convey PM about this degrading facts.

  18. This quota system is not good…
    MP should have the power to go beyond Quota allocated by earlier IAS Babu’s of 1990’s
    MP needs to allocate seats in KV for his constituents, it’s people’s right to ask him or her to do so…

  19. BJP Government is 500 Per Cent more Corrupt than Congress. My this comment is due to its performance during the past 3 Years 8 months period. Besides KVS misuse there are several instances of large scale Corruption by BJP Ministers, CMs . Earlier in Congress Rule when a Minister was found involved in a Corruption case he was immediately removed and CBI Case was Registered but in Modi Raj no FIR against any BJP CM, Minister or other High profile BJP leaders.

  20. LOL! Who says BJP is any different from Congress. In fact what BJP did here is worse than reservation. “Discretionary quota” is plain favoritism. The more time BJP remains in power in the center, the more such things will happen. The people in the lower castes, muslims, people from low economic background will perish like anything.

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