Delhi govt amends ‘quota system’ in private schools

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday announced that there would not be any quota applicable in nursery admissions except Economically Weaker Section quota (EWS).

The Delhi government on Wednesday chose to scrap admissions in private schools through management quota. “Having said that, I agree that the government should take strict action against schools that take donations”, Sharma said. If the school managements object, the government will go to court, he said.

The High Court, in an order, had asked the government not to micro-manage the admission process following which the Education Department allowed the schools to frame their own criteria.

“Management quota is the biggest scandal in the education system”.

Claiming that his school has kept a maximum of 40 points for distance, he added that management quota was there in the school which, however, did not fetch points for the aspirants.

He also ordered schools to scrap “discriminatory and arbitrary” criterion for nursery admission. “So we are issuing an order that 62 such criteria that are not fair, reasonable, transparent and are against the principle of Article 14 of the Constitution (Right to Equality), should be scrapped”, Kejriwal said. “From now onwards, remaining 75 percent will have to made available for general public”, Kejriwal said.

In a similar move, the government has also asked schools to scrap “arbitrary and discriminatory” criterion for nursery admission.

Jain also reiterated Bhattacharya’s view over today’s announcement amounting to contempt of court claiming that the matter is pending before a two-member bench of High Court.

“The Government had asked us to upload our criteria on the Directorate of Education’s website and that has been done”.

This criteria providing for additional points which were abolished by the government included joint family, government employee, vegetarianism, first time admission seekers, non-smoker parent and on special ground like if the candidate is having proficiency in music and sports.

Kejriwal said some of the criteria put out by schools were not acceptable at all.

Currently, the schools keep 20 percent or even more seats under the management quota, while 25 percent seats are reserved for EWS students and the rest are open for the general category children.

Listing out examples of quotas in different schools, he said one school had reserved 75 per cent seats under management quota and only 25 per cent were open.