MHRD approves extension of reservation to OBC students in Kendriya Vidyalayas

The Union Human Resources Development Ministry plans to implement OBC quota in Kendriya Vidyalayas and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas from the academic year 2020-21 by extending the reservation for them. 
It has been decided to reserve 27 per cent seats for students in these schools. The HRD Ministry assured that the admission guidelines for KVs and NVs will be reformed accordingly. 

There was no provision for OBC students under the reservation previously, even though SC/ST students were provisioned under the same. Acclaimed to be the largest chain of schools globally, as many as 1,228 Kendriya Vidyalayas and 600 Navodaya Vidyalayas in India are run under the Department of School Education & Literacy of the HRD Ministry with more than 13 lakh students.

Navodaya Vidyalayas are a system of residential schools for talented students from Class 6 to 12, predominantly from rural areas, where reservation to SC/ST students is given in proportion to their population in the specific district.

Currently, the reservation in Kendriya Vidyalayas goes this way: 15 per cent of all fresh admissions are reserved for SC students, 7.5 per cent for the ST category and 3 per cent for differently-abled children.

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Sources from the HRD Ministry told agencies that: "In view of the comments of Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and the specific views of Ministry of Law and Justice regarding the applicability of provisions of CEI Act, 2006 to KVs and JNVs in so far as it relates to grant of reservation to OBC students for admission in these Vidyalayas, the Ministry has approved the extension of the benefits of reservation to OBC students for admissions in JNVs and KVs”. 

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The reservation system in Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas is classified in the following manner: They have the provision of reservation for SC/ST students but they also need to ensure that 75 per cent students are from rural areas, maximum 25 per cent from urban areas, 33 per cent female students and 3 per cent disabled students. 

Sources told agencies that the HRD ministry announced the decision after having a discussion with the Social Justice and Law ministries along with the OBC Commission.

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(With Inputs from ANI)