DNA Micro Edit: Admission quota defeats purpose of free education

The BMC’s education committee recently mooted a proposal to have a 5-10 per cent quota in admissions to 19 Public Municipal schools (MPS) to students who get recommendations from corporators, MLAs or MPs.

The move has been criticised by several educationists for various reasons. To begin with, the sheer amount of control that the corporators would officially wield on these schools is a cause for concern. While municipal schools cater to students from the lower strata of society, experts fear that the quota might draw corporators into making certain ‘deals’ for admissions, which would defeat the purpose of free and compulsory education.

Recently, a Kandivali corporator wrote to the BMC to issue a circular asking schools to ‘respect corporators’ when his acquaintance could not secure admission into a BMC recognised school in Kandivali. In the current scenario, it is well within the purview of a corporator/MP or MLA to write a recommendation letter for admissions. Having a fixed quota would, however, mean an open ground to use this influence. Sometimes, this might be used at the cost of flouting admission norms and procedures.

At a time when thousands of seats under the RTE quota are left vacant, corporators should work towards bringing more students into schools and making the system more accessible to the population in their respective wards. The corporation should not give into unreasonable demands and ensure it addresses the numerous issues plaguing its schools, from poor infrastructure to high dropouts.