Can’t refuse school admission over single parent name: Manish Sisodia

Sharing a circular of the education department, Sisodia tweeted, “No school in Delhi shall deny admission to a child on the grounds that the child is declaring name of his/her single parent only.”

Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on Monday reiterated that schools in the national capital cannot refuse admission to any applicant for declaring only the name of their single parent.

Sharing a circular of the education department, Sisodia tweeted, “No school in Delhi shall deny admission to a child on the grounds that the child is declaring name of his/her single parent only.”

The circular, issued by Director (education) Udit Prakash Rai on Monday, stated, “All heads of schools of all managements under DoE are (Directorate of Education) hereby directed to not deny admission to candidates who have filled details of even one of the parents in the application form while taking admission.”

A senior official of the education department said the notice was issued after some parents approached the department with complaints of private schools not accepting the application if it contained only the name of a single parent.

School authorities felt the move brought clarity and made the admission process easier for such families.

Awadhesh Kumar Jha, principal of Sarvodaya Co-ed Vidyalaya Sector-3 Rohini, said, “We did admit students with single parents earlier as well. There were some questions about the other parent but we did not deny admission to any child for declaring one parent. The notification only puts more emphasis that we should make the process easier for families where the child may not have both parents for any reason.”