Delhi Private Schools to Witness More Vacant EWS Seats this Year

The government of Delhi has acquired a total of 28193 seats for EWS candidates in the nursery classes and many think that it will not get filled even this year. In the year 2015, the fill rates of these particular seats were even less than 50%.

According to some educational activists, this year it will go further down due to the online system of application and seat allotment implementations. Though, the government has made the admission procedure online, the document verification is still part of the school procedure. In such cases there are denials of applications, which are coming up in light. Many applicants are allotted to schools, which are over eight kilometers from their houses, and thus the seat becomes vacant.

Quite a few NGO’s have been up for the task of filling online forms for the children. One such NGO Pardarshita in Northeast Delhi helped filing 500 online forms through its admission camps. About 135 among them got successfully allotted, but it was heard that only 30 out of them were actually able to claim their seats due to various factors related to it. Things such as name of the students in the ration card for being the address proof or demand of an income certificate from the parents of certain students have come up as hurdles, from the students being allotted the seats. The government has moved the deadline twice for taking admission and has set it to be March 18. But not many things seem to be changing in the right direction. Many students have been allotted schools way far from their homes, making it impossible for them to travel and attend school daily. Another such NGO, Josh filled almost 100 applications from Trilokpuri area, where only nine made the cut. Rekha Koli of Josh said, “Seven of them are in a tiny school in Ashok Nagar several kilometers from here. The online system has made it worse that what it was.”

According to a Lawyer and Activist Khagesh Jha, who is planning to move to court again regarding the same issue, “Several schools have over-stated the number of EWS seats. The directorate of education has sent more students but not in any order. Schools have been asked to take as many as they can but there are no directions on whom to take and drop.” Quite a few schools are even refusing the EWS students claiming that the general category seats have not yet filled, and this would only be possible once it gets filled.