A number of budget private schools in Delhi that were allocated students under the reserved categories in nursery and kindergarten until last year are no longer eligible to admit students to these classes for want of recognition for pre-primary classes, said the management of such schools. The problem has put parents from economically weaker sections at a disadvantage as they are now forced to seek admissions for their wards in the general category only.
School heads said several letters and emails to the directorate of education (DoE), seeking a blanket order recognizing the pre-primary classes of such schools have failed to elicit a positive response.
The online registration process is currently open for admission to the city’s private schools in the entry-level classes — nursery, kindergarten, and class 1— under the reserved categories of economically weaker section (EWS), disadvantaged groups (DG), and children with disabilities for the academic session 2022-23.
Of the three entry-level classes, most budget schools are only being allocated students in class one as they have recognition only from class 1, even though they run nursery and KG classes as well.
West Delhi’s Rajdhani Public School is one such school. School manager Umesh Chand Tyagi said the institution has been running since 1996. While it was initially granted recognition from class 1 onwards, the school started nursery and KG following a gazette notification in 2007. The notification asked schools to start pre-primary classes for admitting all children who had completed the minimum age of 4 years.
“Earlier, nursery and KG classes were run separately. There was a court order directing that nursery and KG be merged within the same school in 2007 and following directions from the DoE, we started running nursery and KG within the same school. Our school is recognized and every year, we take part in the draw of lots for EWS/DG category in all classes but this year, we are only being allowed to take part in the process for class 1,” said Gupta.
He said since most people in the locality were inclined to admit children under the EWS category, the move has left such people at a disadvantage as they would have to take admission in the general category. “It seems like the education department wants to reduce its spending on reimbursement for EWS/DG admissions,” Gupta said.
The Private School Public Trust, an association of Delhi’s budget private schools, wrote to the DoE earlier this month, asking it to extend recognition to schools with pre-primary classes so that they could admit students under EWS/DG category.
Chandrakant Singh, national general secretary of the trust, said he has written to the department multiple times to apprise them of the matter. In an email dated April 7, Singh wrote that while the DoE had granted recognition to most schools from class 1 onwards, these schools in actuality are running from pre-primary classes onwards. In view of the gazette notification from 2007, Singh sought that a blanket order be issued to start/approve pre-primary classes in public schools recognized by DoE.
A source in the DoE familiar with the matter said schools were free to approach the department for recognition of pre-primary classes. “We have told schools that we don’t want to put children from economically weaker backgrounds through any inconvenience. We are neither closing the nursery or KG. Schools are free to approach us for recognition and function as per the norms,” said the official, asking not to be named.
Attribution--Hindustan Times
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