Educating underprivileged children is one of the major issues that the government is looking into over the past few years. The landmark act passed in this regard was the RTE Act. According to this, 25 percent of the seats in a school are reserved for underprivileged children. They can obtain free education till the age of 14 years. Their expenses will be paid for by the government. The government closely monitors the procedures followed by the schools in this regard. Also, the government has another scheme wherein 20 percent of the seats across all classes is reserved for economically weaker students (EWS) if the school is constructed on government land. According to reports, over 1,50,000 students apply for the available 1,25,000 nursery seats every year.

What and How

The Delhi government is monitoring the implementation of the EWS scheme in schools actively. They have also asked all the private schools to submit their paperwork on the EWS admissions within two days. This is applicable to only those schools that have been constructed on government land.

This notice was sent to the schools after the government noticed that as per the education system’s website, only 154 private schools had uploaded information regarding the EWS admissions. This was for students in classes 3 and above. The government has also directed the schools to strictly comply with the EWS scheme and provide admissions to the students belonging to economically weaker sections in the neighborhood.

The notice issued by the government also said that it is very difficult to determine how many students were admitted by the schools under the free quota in the upper classes as the data submitted on the website was insufficient and erroneous. Since the data needs to be submitted to the high court, the government needs accurate information on the number of underprivileged students admitted in the schools that are constructed on the land belonging to the government or DDA.

According to a report by Mail Today, The branches of Maxfort School in Rohini and Pitampura were issued notices under section 20 of the Delhi School Education Act of 1973 because there were many financial irregularities, tax evasions, EWS and land violations among other malpractices done by the school.

Actions taken by Government

The government has taken various actions against schools that are involved in malpractice activities. These include the dismissal of five principals and labeling 300 private schools as defaulters because they did not submit their EWS admission information. Also, 24 teams were formed by the Directorate of Education that have been given the task of visiting private schools and verifying their records for admissions under the EWS and DG (Disadvantaged Group) categories in the 2016-17 session for entry level classes. The government also plans to lodge a complaint against these schools at the Jhandewalan office of the Central Delhi District Education.