Like previous years, the nursery admissions for 2017-18 is expected to witness a huge demand from parents belonging to Economically Weaker Section (EWS) group. Yet, there is a possibility that even after the high demand, most of the reserved EWS seats in the private schools fail to get filled up thus resulting in most of the EWS students not obtaining quality education.
Even though the law asks 25 per cent of the seats in private schools to be reserved for EWS students, who do not have to pay the tuition fee, it is being seen that most of the EWS seats remain vacant.
Educational activists say that the reason most of the seats do not get filed up is due to a weak and an opaque system which still prevails within most of the private schools. The activists highlight that vital information for admissions like the number of seats, charges and neighbourhood distance criteria are concealed by the private schools which results in most of the EWS students either not getting the seats or later dropping out mid-way.
“Reservation of seats for EWS students is being carried out even before the Right to Education Act of 2009 which provides 25 per cent reservation. Even after that, most of the EWS students do not get the right to quality education. The problem is that out of 1,700 private schools in Delhi, only 600-700 are been looked upon. This causes other private schools to manipulate the process owing to their commercial interests,” said Khargesh Jha, a lawyer-cum-educational activist.
In their defence, the school officials explain that it is the remuneration received from the general category students that aid the private schools to sustain themselves since the education facilities to the EWS students is being provided free of cost.
“The fact is that Private schools today are better than government schools and are therefore receiving high demands. For providing quality, you need to have adequate monetary capital. The remuneration from the general students compensates for the free education of EWS students. With the regulatory guidelines, most of the schools also fall short of admitting students from the general category which then leads them reduce the seats for EWS students,” said Prachi Grover Chairperson Vidya Bharti School.