SOE, Meritorious Schools: Joint Entrance Examination on March 30

The date for conducting the entrance examination to be conducted by the State Council of Educational Research and Training, Punjab for admission to classes 9 and 11 in Schools of Eminence (SOE) and Meritorious Schools for the session 2024-25 has been announced as March 30.

While admission to the School of Eminence, inaugurated in September last year, was done through an entrance examination conducted half the time of the year, this time, online applications have been invited from students who wish to take admission in the SOE.
This decision has once again raised the issue of discriminatory policies creating inequality in education among students.
Many government teachers and teachers’ union members have reacted to the announcement, calling it another attempt to half-heartedly promote the ‘education revolution’ in the state. “The fact that these excellent schools have classes from Grade 1 onwards means that there are primary and middle grade students in these schools who are being ignored. There would be no point in taking meritorious students only in the four senior classes and focusing on providing them the best education infrastructure, if learning is not improved from the initial classes. How to improve and make the best of education in the state if only a handful of students will benefit from the so-called advanced infrastructure,” said a teacher from a government school in Mehta block.
Last year, when SOEs were introduced, teachers including the Democratic Teachers Front (DTF) Punjab had objected to the policy saying the state government was trying to fragment education by focusing on only a few classes. The district unit of the Government Teachers Association had also criticized the ‘questionable’ education policies of the Punjab government. Teachers from Meritorious School, Amritsar also shared that such a concept of filtering students on the basis of merit already exists in meritorious schools.
Meanwhile, with the announcement of School of Applied Learning and School of Happiness in the budget session today, the results of such policies on improving public education in the state will be visible.