PUDUCHERRY: Government schools in Puducherry are struggling to meed the demand for admissions in Plus One as private and aided school students have applied in good numbers.
In sharp contrast to the past when there were few takers for government schools and seats went vacant, the applicants have much exceeded the total number of seats available this year.
For a total of 6915 seats in Plus One, about 9361 students have applied this year in the three streams of science, arts including commerce, and vocational, according to data from the School Education department. As many as 1607 applicants are from private schools and 1559 are from aided schools, while the remaining 6195 are government school students.
This is very high compared to the previous year where 6700 students applied for admission in plus one.
The highest demand for seats is in science stream where for 4045 seats in five groups, 5909 students have applied. In arts stream, for 2305 seats in five groups, 2902 students have applied, while for vocational stream, 500 students having applied for 565 seats in nine groups.
Considering the number of seats and applicants, 2446 students cannot be provided admission in the current scenario.
The demand for admission to government schools has gone up steeply due to all pass in 10th and the lockdowns affecting livelihoods of parents forcing them to shift their wards from private schools. Since the higher secondary level education in aided schools is not supported by the government and the students have to pay fees, they are seeking admission in government schools.
At present, the merit list for government school students has been prepared based on marks and reservation policy and displayed for admissions to begin on Wednesday. This would be followed by aided schools students next week and then private schools, school authorities said.
Due to Covid, many parents could not afford to send their children to private schools and are coming to government schools for admission. Since the admission is not centralized, the students are approaching individual schools, but the schools principals and headmasters are turning them away stating that 50 per cent more students than the allotted capacity have already applied, said Leader of Opposition R Siva.
He said the dropout rate in the UT is presently zero per cent and if the students were sent back, they could not continue their studies which will lead to dropouts and be a black mark on the government. Hence, all students should be admitted by providing the additional infrastructure required, the Opposition leader said.
The School Education department is enhancing the seats to around 7200 at present, School Education Director P T Rudra Goud told The New Indian Express. The demand for admission is more in some seven to eight higher secondary schools like Tiruvallur, Jeevananandam, Annai Sivagamai, Kadirgamam govt higher secondary schools in Puducherry region and Annai Theresa, Thanthai Periyar in Karaikal, which are already saturated. But the possibility of increasing seats is being examined.
Steps have been taken to increase 200 seats in Thiruvalluvar Government Higher Secondary schools with 50 seats in science stream and 150 in arts stream. The adjoining middle school is being shifted out as it has very few students and converted as an annexe of the school. Just adding classrooms may not help much as there would be the challenge of posting teachers also, said Goud.
In this scenario, the new Education Minister in the NDA government will have to address the issue at a time when the education of students has already been affected by the Covid pandemic.