With over 50% failure rate, Gurugram EWS students lose out on quality education

Gurugram: Amid host of allegations against the working of private schools in the city, one of the significant accusation has been adopting discriminatory attitude towards economically weaker section students. The telling story on the state of education especially in the context of EWS students was revealed when more than 50% students failed in their annual examinations. More shockingly, the students who failed these examinations were from class- II to class- VIII.

Out of 636 students from economically weaker groups, 305 students passed while 331 failed. The highest passing percentage was from students of class-II where out of 139 students, 125 students passed. The graph only began to slide from thereon. In Class- IV out of 96, 84 passed. In class- V out of 71 students, 22 passed. In Class-VI, 24 students passed out of 100 students who appeared for the examination. In class- VII, out of 90, just 27 students passed, and in Class- VIII only eight students managed to pass, out of the total 48.

After the shocking results that were released on Wednesday, many disappointed parents alleged that the schools adopted an unfair attitude so that they can deliberately be moved out from the school enrollments. This is not for the first time when aspersions have been cast against the management of the private schools towards denying equitable development of financially weak students. Last year, the Education Department sent notices to 156 private schools in Gurugram block for not disclosing the number of seats under section 134-A, Education Act by Haryana Government.

Under section 134-A, the private schools have to disclose the number of seats available with it so that about 25 percent of the seats can then be reserved for Economically Weaker Section (EWS) students. Yet, despite various reminders by the education department most of the private schools in the Gurugram flouted the rules set by the government and did not disclose the information.

Already under controversy for charging hefty fees from the parents, the private schools have been blamed for not providing the information about the seats available to avoid the admissions of economically backward students.

An RTI was filed by one Harinder Dhingra on the number of students under EWS category by the 64 private schools that were given subsidised land by Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA). The management of the schools in turn had committed that 10 percent of students under EWS category will be admitted on the government school fee structure and other 10 percent on the merit cum means basis. However, when the official document was sought most of the schools refused to divulge the details. Some of the educational institutions that provided information also have not adhered to the norms. Except for the two to three schools, most of the school managements are not offering two percent of the seats to EWS students.

In the midst of controversy, Ryan International School was also asked for providing the details. Its management, however, refused to provide information citing that school comes under the minority status. The reluctance to not allow economically backward students has resulted in most of the EWS students availing education through non registered schools and thereby not availing the benefits for which they have been entitled and are being deprived the Right to Education (RTE) Act.