EWS quota triggers turf war

Mohammad Eijaz, a resident of Saket, has been trying to get admission for his son in a nearby school for the past two years.

Mohammad Eijaz, a resident of Saket, has been trying to get admission for his son in a nearby school for the past two years.

HT Image

Despite there being eight schools in the vicinity of his house, he has failed to secure admission for his child. He blames it on the reservation for the economically weaker section (EWS) students.

"I am all for poor children studying along with other students but if my child fails to get admission because there are too few seats left, who else will I blame?" he asks.

The crumbling government school system coupled with a limited number of private schools offering quality education has resulted in a situation where getting admission in a good school is more difficult than getting through most competitive examinations.

There are 2,300 schools in the city and they have around 20,000 seats at the entry level (nursery).

"There just aren't enough reputed schools in the city to cater to the huge demand. Every parent wants to send their child to a good school but many fail in this endeavour and the blame is shifted on to the EWS category students," said Sumit Vohra, who runs an online forum for parents.

Eijaz, meanwhile, is now thinking about sending his child to a boarding school nearby. "I have no option left. I can't have him sit at home while other children go to school," he said.

"The inability of general category students to secure admissions in schools of their choice is being blamed on the EWS reservation. Added to this are issues of fee hike and lack of awareness. Very few parents know that schools built on DDA land were mandated to reserve at least 15% of seats for EWS students even before RTE came in to force," said Saurabh Sharma, member, JOSH, an NGO that works in the field of education.