According to the provisions of the Right to Education Act 2009, all private schools in Delhi are required to reserve 25 per cent of seats for economically weaker section (EWS) and disadvantaged group (DG) students during admissions at the entry level, and compulsorily provide them free education.
About 400 schools in the city are built on land given to them by public land-owning agencies such as the Delhi Development Authority. These schools have been allotted land at concessional rates on the condition that they would provide free education to the EWS children.
The norms for EWS admissions in Delhi schools are:
• Eligibility-Applicants must be permanent residents of Delhi and their family income must not exceed ¹ 2.5 lakh per year.
• Reservations-At the entry level (nursery, KG, and class 1), 25% of seats in private schools are reserved for students from the EWS, DG, and CWSN category.
• Admission process-Selected candidates are admitted in the order of the serial number they receive through a computerized draw of lots.
• Capitation fee-Schools are not allowed to collect any capitation fee or donation or any other fee from parents at the time of admission.
• Documents: Applicants must submit valid proof of date of birth, residence, and EWS/DG/CWSN category.
• Admission status: Schools must update the admission status of applicants on their websites by the laid down date.
During the last one year it has been noted that a number of schools are not following the rules regarding reservation of 25% of seats for the EWS and DG groups. There seems to be no formal mechanism or audit to ensure 25 per cent reservation to poor children in private schools running on land allotted at concessional rates.
Recently there have been incidents of schools flouting the quota mandate and not admitting the children from the EWS Category in spite of clear guidelines from the Directorate of Education,(DOE), Govt.of Delhi.
As per the Delhi high Court judgement delivered some time back, in case any school was found to be violating the provision of the RTE Act and the Delhi Right to Education Rules, the DoE should not hesitate in initiating the process of derecognising the school.
Public spirited people who are helping the children of the EWS category in securing admission in private schools should take up with the DOE in case necessary norms are not followed by private schools and they deny admissions.
