Posted: Mar 29, 2012 at 0148 hrs IST
Chandigarh After maintaining a three-month silence, the UT Education Department today woke up to the issue of denial of admission to underprivileged children by privateschools. The Department has served a two-day showcause notice to three schools against whom written complaints have been received.
These include Vivek High School (Sector 38), St Kabir School (Sector 26) and Delhi Public School (Sector 40). “We are examining the matter. We have already served notices to a few schools asking them to explain the cause of denial. A meeting was held with officials to decide on the further actions,” said DPI (Schools) Sandeep Hans.
While the officials refused to provide the exact number of complaints received against each school, sources confirmed that out of 20, the maximum number of complaints have been filed against St Kabir (15). “The school refused to provide me the application form, stating that there are no seats lying vacant. The guard did not even let me enter the school,” reads the application of Anita Verma (name changed), a Sector 27 resident who wished to apply in St Kabir school for her child’s admission.
A parent from Bapu Dham colony, Sadhu Ram (name changed) seeking admission in the same school, wrote, “When we went to seek admission, the school authorities told us that there were no vacant seats.” When contacted, St Kabir School Administrator Gurpreet Bakshi said, “The Department has written to us about the complaints. But all these complaints are false. No such parent has visited us till date.”
Delhi Public School Principal Reema Dewan said, “We have not refused admission to any eligible applicant. Only those applications were rejected where the applicant either did not meet the age criteria or submitted inadequate documents.”
The Department has also sought replies from six other schools against whom telephonic complaints have been made. An official from the Department said that most of the parents ringing in at the Education Department over the last week complained that they were denied entry into the school.
As per the public notice issued by the Department last week, a total of 470 seats were lying vacant in 38 schools. Of these 13 were vacant in St Kabir, 22 in Vivek High School and 11 in Delhi Public School. The RTE Act makes it mandatory for all private schools to reserve 25 per cent seats in the entry class for underprivileged children.
Independent Schools Association (ISA) President and Vivek High School Director H S Mamik said, “The Department has not made any efforts to bring clarity on the eligibility or reimbursements to be paid to schools. If they have not done their bit, how can they expect us to implement the RTE Act and admit more children. They have not notified the per-child-expenditure till date.”
PU hikes EWS scholarship
CHANDIGARH: Panjab University Vice-Chancellor R C Sobti on Tuesday announced an increase in the amount of scholarship provided to students belonging to economically weaker sections (EWS). For category I, the amount has been increased from last year’s Rs 6,000 to Rs 10,000. For category II, it has been increased to Rs 7,500 from Rs 5,000.
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