Chandigarh: 850 EWS applicants allotted seats, Vivek High School again not on board

Vivek High School chairperson HS Mamik has confirmed that even though 27 seats are allocated to the school as EWS seats for the 2025-26 session, they will not admit EWS students

As a draw of lots was conducted for EWS admissions in entry-level classes in the private non-minority schools of the city for the 2025-26 session on Thursday, not all private schools are willing to admit EWS students. Vivek High School has once again this year objected to enrolling EWS students even as a case is already going on in the Punjab and Haryana high court.

Vivek High School has once again this year objected to enrolling EWS students even as a case is already going on in the Punjab and Haryana high court. (HT)

Out of 3,071 applicants, 850 have been allotted seats. As per the National Education Policy (NEP), entry-level classes are divided into three stages—nursery, LKG and UKG—but each school can give its names to these classes. At least 775 seats have been allotted in pre-primary level 1, 35 in pre-primary level 2 and 40 in pre-primary level 3. While UT education department is set to hold a second draw of lots in the coming days, schools have been directed to finish the admission process by March 4.

As many as 57 private schools participated in the draw of lots. The number of seats reserved by each school is 25% of the total seats as per the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act.

The draw of lots was conducted centrally by the UT education department. UT director school education Harsuhinderpal Singh Brar said, “To ensure transparency in the admission process for the EWS category we have been conducting the centralised EWS admissions in all private non-minority schools on which RTE is applicable for the last three years. The process went over smoothly, and details of the allotted seats have now been sent to the respective schools for them to undertake admissions and comply with their statutory obligation.” He added that a recent order by the high court has also cleared them to go ahead with the draw, while a detailed order is still awaited.

However, not all schools will participate in this. Vivek High School chairperson HS Mamik has confirmed that even though 27 seats are allocated to the school as EWS seats for the 2025-26 session, they will not admit students under this.

Mamik said, “We have no problem in giving admission to EWS students, but the local government must first compensate us for the whole 25% of the students that we admit as per the RTE Act. The compensation for this is pending and we wrote a letter to the UT district education officer (DEO) in November 2024 as they didn’t compensate us for any of the 22 students admitted underthe EWS category for the 2024-25 session, and we were told we will be paid next year.”

Mamik added that it is against their school’s policy to take payment for the students after the end of the academic session. He added that payment should be made either on a per month or a per quarter basis. He also said he will write to the government to get information regarding whether there is any allocation of funds made in the education budget for clearing pending payments for EWS seats, and why it is delayed.

While the high court case is listed on March 25, St Kabir Public School, Sector 26, which is also a part of the case has been given the go-ahead to participate in the EWS admissions for now. School chief administrator Gurpreet Singh Bakshi said they will comply with the law and will see whether to file any appeal regarding EWS admissions after the next hearing.

The UT education department in 2023 took the decision to derecognise both Vivek and St Kabir for not complying with EWS admissions under RTE, however, the high court had stayed this decision in January 2024, with the condition that the school will admit students from the EWS category as mandated under RTE Act.