Intake of students from Asr, Tarn Taran nosedives

Neeraj Bagga

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, September 27

After the introduction of an entrance test this year for admission in the Senior Secondary Residential School for meritorious students, intake of students from Amritsar and Tarn Taran has drastically gone down.

Not more than 40 students are from these districts in the school. Earlier, there were 175 students from Amritsar and 75 from Tarn Taran in the last academic session.

Even as the total strength of students in Class XI was 500, nearly 350 students could qualify for the local Meritorious School, situated at Guru Nanak Dev University. Of these, some girl students further left the school citing home sickness and long distance from home.

On the other hand, student intake from Muktsar and Fazilka towns was impressive as they contributed 35 and 30 students, respectively. In the maiden entrance test held this year for admission in the free-of-cost schools run for meritorious students of government schools, 3,028 students had appeared. Of these, 6,500 had successfully cracked the examination.

Col (Retd) Ramesh Chander Patial, Principal of the school, held the parents and students responsible for the low arrival of students from Amritsar and Tarn Taran districts. He elaborated that a majority of the students churning out of rural government schools were of low calibre and understanding of their parents was also not good. The students of government schools affiliated with the Punjab School Education Board who have attained 80 per cent marks or above in Class X could apply for admission in these schools.

These schools have come up at Patiala (Punjabi University), Bathinda (Giani Zail Singh Engineering and Technology College), Ludhiana (Government College for Boys), Jalandhar (Sports School) and Mohali (Sector 70, opposite Mataur village), apart from Amritsar.

To strengthen education at the senior secondary level, the state government started the admission process for its six smart residential schools established for meritorious students who would be imparted quality education for Class XI and XII, free of cost.

PRINCIPAL PASSES THE BUCK TO PARENTS 

Col (retd) Ramesh Chander Patial, principal of the Meritorious School, held the parents and students responsible for the low arrival of students from Amritsar and Tarn Taran districts. He said a majority of the students passing out of rural government schools were of low calibre and the understanding of their parents was also not good