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Nearly half of all seats that still remain vacant under the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category in private schools in the city did not receive any applications.
This year, out of over 35,000 seats that were available under the category for admission in Nursery, Kindergarten and Class I, over 6,000 are still vacant. Of these, there were no applicants for 3,040 seats.
The data was submitted to the Delhi Assembly in response to a question asked by Leader of Opposition, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri.
EWS seats going vacant each year has been a recurring problem for the Delhi government, with multiple draws of lots being conducted each year in an attempt to fill the seats. This year, at least five such draws have been held.
The Delhi High Court, earlier this month, ordered the government to increase the cap on annual family income for admission to schools under the EWS category from Rs 1 lakh (Rs 8,333 per month) to Rs 5 lakh (Rs 41,667 per month).
With this, the government is hoping that its struggle to fill the vacant seats will be addressed.
This year, around 2.09 lakh applications were received for the 35,000 seats under the 25% quota at 2,001 private schools.
As per the Right to Education Act, all private schools have to reserve 25% of their seats at the entry-level (nursery, kindergarten and Class I).
According to education department officials, while the race to make it is tough, there is a section of schools that does not receive applications under the quota. “These are schools, where the fee is between Rs 1,500 and Rs 2,500 per month. These schools actually rely on the reimbursement from the government since the reimbursement per child is around 2,400 per month. The rush is for the top 75-100 schools only,” the official said.
To be sure, the lack of application is not the only reason for seats going vacant.
As per the reply, other reasons include parents not taking admission in the schools they have been assigned and schools rejecting applications if documents are not available or verified. “There have been several cases where schools say that parents did not take admission in the school the children were allotted but in reality, the schools do not entertain them. Since parents are not always aware of their rights, they do not complain,” said a Delhi government source.
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