Reimbursement for EWS seats too little: Schools

Delhi Government will reimburse anything between Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,300 per child for 25% seats reserved under the economically weaker sections (EWS) in the unaided public schools, said education minister Arvinder Singh on Thursday.

Delhi Government will reimburse anything between Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,300 per child for 25% seats reserved under the economically weaker sections (EWS) in the unaided public schools, said education minister Arvinder Singh on Thursday. The government though is yet to issue any official circular the reimbursement amount.

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As per the Delhi government’s nursery admission guidelines framed under the Right to Education (RTE), it is mandatory for unaided schools to reserve 25% seats for the EWS category and the government will reimburse the amount equal to that spent on a student studying in a government school.

Private unaided schools had earlier said they might have to resort to a fee hike for general category students if the government does not reimburse the full fee amount for EWS category. The government has categorically ruled out any fee hike.

LV Sehgal, principal, Bal Bharti School, Gangaram Marg, said, “The 6th pay commission and recruiting more teachers to maintain a teacher student ratio of 1:30 as per RTE is costing the schools a lot. A reimbursement of R1,000 to R1,300 is too low, we might have to increase the fee.”

RC Jain, president, Delhi State Management Schools, an association of 1,531 unrecognised schools, said, “We won’t allow the 25% reservation of EWS students, since we don’t get government aid.”

But there are only 500 such schools that spend more than R1,300, said Singh. “The Capital has 3,000 schools, out of which 2,500 have a fee structure lower than R1,000. The rest already had 15% EWS reservation as they had got land at concessional rates,” added Singh.

Singh also said, in case a school can’t fill the 25% reserved seats, they should write to the DoE. “Many EWS parents approach the DoE for admission, we can accommodate those students in schools with vacant seats,” he added. He added that the government may convert vacant EWS seats to general after the admission process is over on March 31.

Erring schools

Singh said that so far 15 schools were found guilty of flouting admission guidelines and appropriate action has been taken against them. The complaints range from parents being forced to buy expensive prospectus by schools, EWS category parents alleging discrimination and schools creating discriminatory criteria.