OBC quota in Navodaya Vidyalayas likely

The Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNV) may soon introduce quota in admission for students belonging to Other Backward Castes (OBCs).At present, the government run-residential schools provide reservation in admission to students belonging to Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) only.

Addressing the national cultural integration meet of JNV students on Tuesday, Minister of State for Human Resource Development (HRD) Upendra Kushwaha described the absence of a quota system for OBC students as an “anomaly”, and assured that the government will soon take steps to “rectify” it.

HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar was also present on the occasion.
The JNVs, which fill their seats with 75% children from the rural areas, admit SC/ST
students under a flexible quota system.

The seats are reserved in proportion to the SC and ST population in the district, provided that marking of seats for such students should not be lesser than 15% for SC and 7.5% for ST.

The total seats reserved for SC and ST students should also not go beyond 50% of the total number of seats.

Kushwaha, who is in charge of the elementary education department of the HRD Ministry, had expressed displeasure on a previous occasion too.

Addressing the event, Javadekar expressed dissatisfaction with the number of girl students in JNVs.

Need more girl students
“Just 39% of the total students are girls. This is not good. We must make efforts to increase the enrolment of girls in the JNVs,” the HRD minister said.

One-third of the total seats are reserved for girls in admissions to the JNVs. A total of 600 JNVs are functioning in the country.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs recently approved the establishment of 62 new JNVs in 18 states, three of which will to be opened in Kolar, Ramanagara and Kalaburagi districts.

“We will open more JNVs in the coming days,” Javadekar added.