In the Capital alone, 12 Kendriya Vidyalayas, conceived as pace-setting institutions, are functioning without permanent buildings. The building of one is almost complete and another two have got sanction for construction. The infrastructure in all these will be made available only when funds are made available.

But the HRD Ministry doesn't have much of a choice, given that secondaryeducation is always regarded as a stepchild when compared to primary education and higher education. Even then, demand for more Kendriya Vidyalayas continues to grow, especially from the Armed Forces. There are approximately 150 proposals for Kendriya Vidyalayas that are awaiting funding, of which 30 are ``mature''. This year, in fact, there are requests to open at least 20 more schools. The stipulation is that there should be at least 1,000 children of Central Government employees in a big city and 500 in a remote location.

The demand is to be expected, given their performance: their Class X and Class XII results have been consistently better than the CBSE average. In 1998, the Class X pass percentage of Kendriya Vidyalayas was 76.8 per cent (compared to the CBSE average of 63.2 per cent), whereas the Class XII pass percentage was 79.9 per cent for Kendriya Vidyalayas and 72.6 per cent for CBSE.

Demands for transfers from highly organised teachers is another particularly worrisome factor for the KendriyaVidyalaya Sanghathan, which has just got itself a Commissioner (H M Cairae) after a six-month delay. There are over 35,000 teachers in Kendriya Vidyalayas and over 4,500 sought transfers this year alone, but only 300 could be accommodated.