Govt to start 2nd phase of admissions to fill vacant seats
Admissions for kids belonging to the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category under the RTE Act, which had run into a roadblock because of vacant seats, is now entering its second phase.
Admissions for kids belonging to the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category under the RTE Act, which had run into a roadblock because of vacant seats, is now entering its second phase.
The Delhi government had said that schools would have to conduct EWS admissions throughout the year, including summer holidays to fill the vacant seats under the category as per the Right to Education (RTE) Act. Education minister Arvinder Singh had said that around 8,000 such seats needed to be filled.
In the first phase, the government had launched an ad campaign to fill seats in schools that start classes from class 1. In the second phase, it is targeting schools that have nursery and KG sections.
"In the first phase, we targeted 500 schools that had 6,000 seats. Though the response was not very encouraging, we are going to start the second phase of admissions in schools that have nursery and KG sections," said a senior government official.
However, the government has admitted that despite the ad campaign, it will be difficult to fill the vacant EWS seats as many schools are not sought-after. "The top 200 schools are the most sought-after by parents, while the rest have witnessed vacant seats. But we aim to fill all the vacant seats which might be difficult," the official said.
Earlier, a notice was issued to the schools to carry out the process throughout the summer holidays till the seats were filled. The schools had said that inter-school rotation needed to be checked as kids belonging to the EWS category often changed schools within the area, leaving their previous seat vacant.
"Many EWS candidates who had got admitted in two or more schools were rotating between the institutes, leaving the seat in the previous school vacant. As a result, the seat had to be filled all over again, which meant that the school has to conduct a fresh lottery," said Ameeta Wattal, vice-chairperson, National Progressive Schools Conference.
The government said it was looking to put in place a control mechanism to ensure that students would not shift schools once they sought admission.