A day after the city private schools threatened not to admit students of the economically weaker section (EWS) category in the nursery classes citing financial burden, the Delhi government on Thursday said that the schools violating the norms under the RTE Act implementation would be de recognised.
Delhi education minister Arvinder Singh Lovely reportedly said that any school violating provisions regarding the EWS students, as mandated under the Right to Education Act, will have to face derecognition.
The government is of the view that with the burden of giving free education to the poor students being shared by it, the private schools should have no reason to complain.
The government has already committed financial assistance every month in the range of `1,200 to `15,00 per month for every EWS student. The schools, therefore, cannot cite financial burden as a reason for not allowing admission to EWS students in nursery classes. Also, the government has agreed that if the EWS seats are not filled up after the mandated process, those seats will be shifted to general category, which would mean that the financial burden on the private schools would be much less than what they are trying to portray.
While the private schools have been maintaining that if the government does not bear the full cost of EWS students’ education, they will be forced to shift the burden to the students from general category by increasing the fees. This would be unfair, they further claim.
The government is, however, of the view that the private schools must bear part of the cost of giving free education to the EWS students.
Nearly 1,300 private schools, through various federations, have threatened to shut the schools for an indefinite period over the issue.