Following the Delhi High Court order, the Directorate of Education (DoE) of Delhi Government has sought complete information from all public and private schools pertaining to the children admitted under the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) quota and facilities — free books and uniforms — being provided to them.
The court had on August 5 directed the Director of Education Padmini Singla to file an affidavit within two weeks indicating the same. The Right to Education (RTE) Act states that schools shall ensure that children admitted from the weaker section and disadvantaged group ‘shall not be discriminated from the rest of the children in any manner pertaining to entitlements and facilities such as textbooks, uniforms, library, information and communication technology, extra-curricular activities and sports.’
However, several schools have been flouting this rule openly giving excuses like the Government’s compensation to the school for the same is too meagre an amount. The court’s direction came after several complaints against violation of the act by several schools.
Earlier as well, circulars were issued to the schools asking them to follow the rules. However, this time round, the matter is being taken care of directly by the High Court of Delhi. The DoE has to submit an affidavit with complete information regarding the facilities being provided to the students under EWS.
Thus, additional director of education Madhu Teotia issued a letter asking principals of all private unaided schools to furnish the requisite and authentic information by Monday. “All education officers will check and consolidate the information provided by the private unaided schools falling under their respective jurisdiction and submit the same on or before Wednesday along with one set of format of each school. This data should also have the total enrollment of children of classes first to eight of all Government schools and Government aided schools,” said Teotia.
According to Government data, at present a total of 1,268 schools under the DoE are private and unaided. Each school is given a stipulated amount of money, based on Government calculations, which is solely meant for EWS students.