BENGALURU: Karnataka govt is considering introducing a separate reservation for rural govt school students within the existing rural quota for admissions to professional courses.Currently, students who have studied from Classes 1 to 10 in rural schools are eligible for a 15% reservation in CET and NEET admissions.The quota, however, covers students from both govt and private schools. The rural horizontal quota was initially introduced through The Karnataka Reservation of Appointments for Posts (In the Civil Services of the State) for Rural Candidates Act, 2000 and later extended to professional courses.Educationists argue that the existing framework does not provide a level playing field, as most of the students who get in through this quota are from private schools.A report by the former Karnataka Administrative Reforms Commission had also pointed out this disparity.CBSE, ICSE students get half of rural seats: ReportQuoting 2022 data for NEET, the report pointed out over half of MBBS seats under the rural quota were being taken by students of CBSE and ICSE schools. A proposal being suggested is to split the existing 15% rural quota –– 7.5% reserved for students from rural govt schools, while the remaining 7.5% would be open to students from private aided and unaided schools.According to KARC report, students from rural govt schools following state syllabus account for nearly 49% of all class 10 passes from rural Karnataka across boards but secured only 23% of MBBS seats under rural quota.Students from rural CBSE and ICSE schools, who constitute a mere 5% of rural class 10 students, secured 51% of the seats. The argument is that rural CBSE/ICSE schools come from a much higher income background than average rural students in govt schools.“We have been pushing this with govt for the past six months and are hoping for a positive decision,” said Chandrashekhar Nugli, Association of Govt Primary School Teachers of Karnataka.
