Eighty Jharkhand government-run Schools of Excellence which have 12,000 seats have received 30,000 applications, an official said on Thursday. Hemant Soren, Jharkhand Chief Minister, in a bid to provide quality education in English medium, on May 2 inaugurated 80 government schools of Education.
“Against the total number of 12,146 available seats for admissions to Schools of Excellence (SoEs), a whopping number of approximately 30,000 applications have been received across the state by the school management till May 17. The number of applications is 246 percent higher than the total seats,” an official said. A maximum number of applications have been received from Deoghar at 3,247, Lohardaga at 2,254, Giridih at 1,708, Palamu at 2,322, and Ramgarh at 1,489.
Given the demand of the parents, the deadline for submission of applications in Schools of Excellence (SoEs) has been extended till May 25. Earlier, the government had fixed the date for application from May 2 to May 15. The selection test will be held on May 30 while the first merit list will be published on June 7 and admissions as per the merit list will start from Jun 12.
These 80 district-level Schools of Excellence are part of the government’s aim to provide quality education opportunities to 15 lakh school children studying in government schools including plans to set up 325 block-level schools and 4,091 gram panchayat level model schools across the state in the second phase.
Last month, at least 10 students of Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) in Khunti district, a part of a government project to reduce gender disparities in rural areas and among disadvantaged communities, had qualified in the JEE (Mains).
Online training of Principals of 80 Schools of Excellence has been given by the National Center for School Leadership in two phases. The training of Principals of 80 Schools of Excellence has also been completed in two phases by the Azim Premji Foundation. In January, training was imparted by IIMs for the capacity building of principals.
All students in these 80 Schools of Excellence will be imparted vocational training for 11 trades, the government had earlier announced. These include Agriculture, IT, ITES, apparel and make-up and home furnishing, media and entertainment, automotive, tourism and hospitality, beauty and wellness, multi-skilling, electronics, and hardware, retail, and healthcare.