Luck will no longer play a part in a child being admitted to a state-run or aided school in Bengal.

The Mamata Banerjee government on Thursday decided to do away with the 16-year-old practice of drawing lots to select students for admission, saying that the 42 state-run institutions would henceforth be governed by a rational, uniform policy.

The 15,000 state-aided schools would need to frame clear-cut admission policies of their own and stick to them. “The lottery system is history,” education minister Bratya Basu declared after a cabinet meeting in the evening.

“These schools are at liberty to determine whether they would prefer admitting students from classes I to VIII on first-come-first-served basis or through admission tests. The ground rule is that they must have a clear-cut admission policy,” he said.

For the 42 schools directly under the school education department, the government will soon come up with “a suitable formula” to screen and admit students.

The cabinet decision does not apply to private schools in the city and elsewhere in the state, which has nearly 500 ICSE or CBSE institutions.

“The government has yet to finalise its stand on the admission process followed by private schools,” said an official in the education department.

The system of admitting students to Class I through a draw of lots has been followed for over a decade and a half by state-run schools in the city like Hindu, Hare, Ballygunge Government, Bethune Collegiate and Sakhawat Memorial. The erstwhile Left Front government had introduced the system in 1995, ostensibly to relieve students of the stress of entrance examinations.

The Right to Compulsory and Free Education Act, which states that no student should be denied admission between classes I and VIII, was then cited as a reason to consider extending the lottery system to the 15,000-odd state-aided schools.

A section of academicians supported the move, much to the consternation of those who saw it as being unfair to deserving students who might not enjoy the luck of the draw.

But what if the freedom given to state-aided schools is misused?

Education minister Basu said the government would ensure children were not discriminated against or denied admission on flimsy grounds. “We will set up a committee to monitor school admissions,” he said, hastening to add that his department would not intervene until forced to do so.

“We will take prompt action if we receive a complaint about corruption,” Basu said.

The cabinet meeting also endorsed the education department’s proposal not to detain any student for an extra year between classes I and VIII.

As of now, private schools are out of the purview of this rule. The government intends framing a separate policy for private schools in regard to detaining students on the basis of performance till Class VIII.

The right to education law prohibits schools from detaining any student till Class VIII.

Although students will get automatic promotions, their report cards will mention whether they have passed or failed in an examination.

A third cabinet decision taken on Thursday is to recruit schoolteachers through a single screening test, to be conducted by the West Bengal School Service Commission. A proposal had been pending to recruit teachers through two tests — the Teacher Eligibility Test recommended by Delhi and the routine test held by the state commission.