NEW DELHI: About 2.4 lakh students who have been studying at various private schools have applied for admission in Delhi government schools, from nursery to Class 12, for the 2021-22 academic session, reports Shradha Chettri. Out of these, the admission of over 1.58 lakh students has been completed. Principals of the government schools say that a big chunk of these admissions has been for Classes 9 and 11, and they attribute this increase to the economic losses faced by the parents due to Covid-19.
According to data released by the directorate of education (DoE), 2,36,522 applications were received for classes nursery to Class 12 in about 1,030 government schools.
So far, 1,58,484 students have been admitted and the process is continuing. This data is for what is called non-plan admissions — for those students who had been studying in private schools. However, the data on last year’s non-plan admission was not provided.
Tweeting about this, Cheif Minister Arvind Kejriwal said, “This is happening for the first time in India.”
There have been two cycles of admission season this year for non-plan admissions. Delhi government allowed students from private schools to take admission in their schools even without a transfer certificate. It said the department would on its own get the TCs from the respective schools.
Aruna Anand, head of Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Ambedkar Nagar, said: “This year many more students from public schools in Delhi and even outside, like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, have come to take admission. Some could not pay the fees in the public schools and some shifted. These are mostly students from smaller public schools.” In this particular school, maximum admissions have been for Class XI.
Government Co-ed Sarvodaya Vidyalaya, Sector 8, Rohini, has a similar story. The maximum number of admissions here too have taken place in Class 11. “Last year, we had about 150 non-plan admissions, but this year it is about 400, from Class I to XII. One of the reasons is that many parents have lost their jobs due to the lockdown. The reputation of our school has been good with the constant good results we have achieved and many are also quite impressed with our new school building,” said A K Jha, head of the school.
However, at Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalay No. 2, West Punjabi Bagh, Class 9 seems to have been the popular choice for non-plan applicants. The head of the school, Madhu Gupta, said there has been no increase in admissions for classes VI-VII and XI.
With this increase, according to the DoE, the total number of enrolled students in Delhi government schools has touched 17.67 lakh. In 2020-21, the figure was 16.28 lakh, while in 2019-20, it was around 15.05 lakh.
Reference: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/1-6-lakh-delhi-students-move-from-private-to-government-schools/articleshow/86180624.cms