50% merit holders fail to clear meritorious schools’ exam

Muktsar lad gets first position

• Rohit Kumar, a student of Government High School, Danewala village in Muktsar district, has topped the entrance exam conducted for admission to meritorious schools. Jaspal Monga, Deputy District Education Officer, Muktsar, said, “Our student has got the first position in results declared on Tuesday.”

Archit Watts
Tribune News Service

Muktsar, July 6

The maiden results of the entrance exam conducted for admission to meritorious schools in the state have raised eyebrows as only 50.3 per cent students could qualify it.

A total of 6,547 students had applied for the exam that was conducted on June 12 in all districts. As many as 531 of them remained absent. Of the 6,016 students who took the exam, only 3,028 could qualify it.

All these students of government schools had scored above 80 per cent marks in the PSEB class X results declared recently.

A total of 4,500 seats are available in the nine meritorious schools in the state. But going by these results, it seems a large number of seats will remain vacant or some relaxation will have to be given to the students.

The Education Department has already announced its counselling schedule, which will begin from Thursday (July 7) for both boys and girls.

The entrance exam results have raised doubt over the credibility of PSEB’s class X results declared recently.

Some educationists wonder how a student scoring above 80 per cent marks has failed to clear a much easier entrance test from the same syllabus.

Even the officials in the Education Department are worried over the results and most of them remained mum over it.

A government teacher from Muktsar, who has been serving for 25 years, said, “The entrance exam results have definitely raised questions about the credibility of the PSEB result. The entrance exam of total 150 marks was conducted at the class X level in three subjects — English, Maths and Science. To qualify for admission, candidates had to just score 16.5 marks in each part and overall 50 per cent marks.”

Similarly, another teacher compared the state’s education system with Bihar.

Pradeep Kumar Aggarwal, Director General of School Education (DGSE), Punjab, said, “I am not aware of the results and the syllabus. The project director for meritorious schools can comment better on it.”

Repeated attempts to contact KAS Bhullar, Project Director for Meritorious Schools, proved futile. Even Education Minister Dr Daljit Singh Cheema was not available for his comments.

Courtesy: The Tribune