Delhi: 73,000 children who failed in schools out of system

As per an affidavit submitted by the Education Department in the High Court, of the 1.55 lakh children who failed in the various classes, only 52,582 had been re-admitted to regular government schools.

A circular issued by the department in August 2018 issued guidelines to heads of various government schools in dealing with the matter of re-admitting children who failed in classes IX-XII.

It states that a student who fails once should be re-admitted to the school if they “insist” on it, but only after they have been told to consider other options like CBSE’s Patrachar Vidyalaya or National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) centres, which the state government runs in collaboration with the NIOS.

However, in cases of students who fail in two consecutive years, the circular states that, “he/she will invariably be counselled about choosing other available options like the Patrachar Vidyalaya, the NIOS, etc and will not be re-admitted as a regular student”.

Of the children who failed in 2017-2018, less than a third were re-admitted to their schools. While 11,226 were admitted to Patrachar Vidyalayas, 18,345 were admitted to NIOS centres.

Education experts have been critical of this movement of children away from regular schooling into distance learning modes.

“This policy of not re-admitting students and encouraging them to enter these alternative institutes does not help them academically, and pushes them out of the formal education system. Once children are admitted to NIOS, the chances of them getting a chance to pursue studies after Class X becomes limited and the only avenue that remains for them is vocational courses,” said Anita Rampal, former professor of elementary and social education at Delhi University.

However, even more striking is that 47.25% of the children who failed in 2017-2018 are unaccounted for, and not admitted to any of these institutions.

The affidavit stated that the “department is very much concerned about those failed students who could not take admission in any of the above said three institutions running under the respondent (education department)”.

The department is now taking measures such as sending letters to addresses of the children and instructing the cluster resource centre coordinators to identify such students and facilitate admissions.

For many children, being refused re-admission is a demoralising experience.

Take, for instance, a 15-year-old who failed Class IX twice and was refused re-admission to his school in Kidwai Nagar this year.

“We haven’t admitted him to an open school — it doesn’t have the manyata (recognition) of a regular school. He wasn’t even able to cope with regular school, how will his studies improve in an open school where no one will watch over and help him? We want him to continue in regular school till Class XII,” said his mother.