NEW DELHI: Aiming to free 40,000 seats in Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs), the government has decided to completely do away with the 'quota raj' in these centrally funded senior secondary schools.

Taking away the special privileges enjoyed by MPs, government officials and the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS), among others in the form of discretionary quotas, the government has also decided to offer admission to children orphaned due to Covid-19. Under the PM Cares for Children scheme, these children will be exempted from payment of fees.

The discretionary quotas were put on hold early last month and reviewed by the ministry of education. The decision to scrap them was taken on Monday.
According to a government note, accessed by TOI, the decision to scrap the 'quota raj' was taken as "it has also distorted the overall percentage of SC/ST/OBC reservations in the schools". The government believes that doing away with this special privilege will also help stop "crowding of classrooms".

As per the revised guidelines for the 2022-23 academic year, reservations in admission will be extended only to children belonging to the SC/ST/OBC and those with disabilities. The 3% quota for persons with disabilities is supernumerary. The admissions for the 2022-23 academic session is under way till June 2022.
Under the special provisions, an MPs had discretionary power to recommend the admission of 10 children to a KV and a district magistrate could recommend 17 students under the sponsoring authority quota in KVs. These apart, the KVS has also removed other quotas including for 100 children of education ministry employees, children and dependent grandchildren of MPs, and retired KV employees, and the discretionary quota of the school management committee chairman, among others.