PANAJI: Following the inclusion of neighbourhood school concept in the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) of the government, the department of education is all set to change its old guidelines as regards admission criteria in Goan schools.
A senior official of the department of education informed ‘The Navhind Times’ that as per the old guidelines, the students residing near the schools were given priority for admission in the respective schools; with distances of their houses from the schools fixed at 1 km, 2 km and 5 km.
“However, gradually this criteria was ignored by the schools and admissions were given based on parameters like father or mother or both of the child’s parents being the former students of the school and so on,” the DoE official maintained, pointing out that subsequently the admission exercise was converted into “horse trading” by many of the school managements. “This defeated the very purpose of the government allowing opening of schools in the areas of habitation, so that children staying nearby could get admitted in them,” he noted.
Speaking further, the senior DoE official said that the proximity of residence of any child to the school would now carry maximum weightage for his or her admission in the neighbourhood school. “A child residing within the distance of 1 km from a school would now be admitted in that school on priority,” he mentioned, pointing out that the related new guidelines would be strictly implemented from next academic year.