EWS seats still vacant in pvt schools, say activists: Authorities turn a blind eye to pending applications.

Deccan Herald: New Delhi: Thursday, October 25, 2012.

Seats reserved for the economically weaker section lie vacant while admission applications are still pending with the deputy directors of education in each district, allege lawyer-activists.

Khagesh Jha, advocate and Right to Education (RTE) campaigner, wrote a letter highlighting that EWS admissions in classes nursery to one are on hold despite several seats being vacant. “The DDEs have received several applications for admission in private schools where there are vacant seats. But nothing has been done,” he said.

His letter said, “Administrative inefficiencies of some of the DDEs can be understood but if all the DDEs are on hold despite their statutory duty under the notification dated 07.01.2011 then it is really a very serious issue.

It is important to mention here that the officers at district and zonal level are very comfortable with the school lobby which are continuously defeating the provisions of RTE.”

He added that in a recent Right to Information (RTI) reply, it was discovered that the thousands of seats are still lying vacant.

“The RTI further reveals that the schools are showing reduced number of enrolment in their annual return and it is not difficult for department to detect as there is huge gap in enrolments in annual return when you compare with the undertaking submitted by schools in compliance of the April 28 order about enrolment in entry level classes during last three years,” said Jha.

He further alleged that he has proof about crores of disproportionate money being earned by schools and the directorate of education is doing nothing about it.

He met Amit Singhla, DoE’s director, to talk about these issues last month where Singhla assured that he will look into the issue and start the EWS admission drive within a week. Later, Jha wrote another letter to Singhla highlighting that the admission process has not yet started.

“According to the January 7 High Court order, DDEs should act on the applications if seats are lying vacant but they are sitting on them,” added Jha.

Singhla was not available for comments but a senior official from DoE said that they aim to resolve the issue soon but refused to divulge further details about how they will complete the admission process across private schools in Delhi, which have vacant seats under the EWS category.