This story is from June 8, 2021

Delhi: Saket school shows door to EWS students, cites fund crunch

Stating that the “unprecedented situation of Covid-19 has caused financial stress and lack of funds,” a private school has asked children studying under the economically weaker section (EWS) to take admission in a government school.
Delhi: Saket school shows door to EWS students, cites fund crunch
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NEW DELHI: Stating that the “unprecedented situation of Covid-19 has caused financial stress and lack of funds,” a private school has asked children studying under the economically weaker section (EWS) to take admission in a government school.
Gyan Bharti School in Saket has sent emails to around 19 students who were promoted from Class X to Class XI. With the school being built on government land, it is their duty to provide free education to the children till they complete class XII, claim parents.
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Schools, like most other concerns, have suffered due to Covid-19. But that does not give them the right to break rules and throw out EWS category students, who would have suffered as much if not more. In any case, how would the fees of 11 students help the fortunes of the school? Such insensitive measures must be immediately stopped. Authorities should take action against the school for profiting from govt largesse, then failing to keep their part of the deal.


All India Parents’ Association (AIPA) has written a complaint to chief minister Arvind Kejriwal asking him to take action.

One of the parents told TOI, “I would have understood if the child was not doing well or causing problems in the school. But my child is on par with the other children. He wants to study science and clear his NEET. As the entire family was affected by Covid, we could not check the email. We got to know about it when one of my son’s friends called and told him that streams had been allotted. We tried logging in the portal but couldn’t. We thought there must have been some mistake, but we later got to know that they were planning this.”

Section 12 (1)(C) of the Right to Education Act reserves 25% of the seat for children belonging to the EWS/DG category.
The parent has submitted an application to the school but is yet to hear anything from them. “My child is now in stress, he has been asking me if they will ever reply. I don’t know what to tell him. They have studied in the school for long and now, it will be difficult to change their environment all of a sudden,” she said. These children have been studying in the school since nursery class.
The school did not respond to the email sent by TOI. However, one of its senior officials requesting anonymity said that these matters should not be sensationalised. “We have to find a way to help the students. We are ready to help them and are not playing with their careers. The issue is in the purview of discussion,” the official said.
Meanwhile, a letter by AIPA president, Ashok Agarwal, stated, “It is submitted that the rules framed by Delhi government and the RTE Act 2009 also provide that all schools, which are on DDA allotted land, should provide free education to all the EWS children up to Class 12. But action by the school in not allowing admission in Class 11 and providing free education up to class 12 is not just illegal and arbitrary but also discriminatory and tantamount to contempt of Delhi High Court order.”
Agarwal, an advocate, said that both students and parents were worried and not in a position to pay fees and hence, the government should intervene.
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