Delhi govt tells schools to stop admission of ‘illegal Bangladeshis’: How this contradicts its own policy
According to government school teachers and principals, it has been standard practice for them to admit students without documentation.
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The circular for admission, however, also makes it clear that children will not be denied admission for the lack of documents (Representative image)The Delhi government’s direction to schools to “prevent unauthorised admissions of illegal Bangladeshi migrants”, by verifying documents at the time of admission, flies in the face of several orders, including one passed by it in April this year.
As per the Delhi government’s policies, to seek admission in government schools, parents of students are expected to provide proof of date of birth and residence alongside their admission forms. The circular for admission, however, also makes it clear that children will not be denied admission for the lack of documents and school authorities will help them get the documents made.
“Admission will not be denied to any Divyang child, destitute child, refugee/asylum seeker, homeless, migrant, orphan, or child in Need of Care and Protection in any government school due to non-availability of essential documents at the time of submission of documents in the school. Provisional admission for 30 days will be allowed on the basis of simple undertaking on plain paper…,” the circular said.
According to government school teachers and principals, it has been standard practice for them to admit students without documentation.
“We have been given instructions time and again that we are not supposed to turn away any children at the time of admission in compliance with the Right to Education Act. We are not the competent authority to judge whether someone is an illegal migrant or not. We have been told by the principal that we should ask children to show us their parents’ voter IDs, Aadhaar cards, ration cards and birth certificates. Many children of migrant workers have none of these documents. Schools in our area, which is full of migrants who come to Delhi looking for work, are not able to produce any of these documents,” said a teacher at a government senior secondary school in Northeast Delhi, which borders Uttar Pradesh.
The principal of a municipal school in East Delhi said that owing to repeated litigation and scrutiny on the matter, schools have been told to help students get their basic documents after admission has been granted.
“In my school, at least a third of the children are from Ghaziabad. Many of them have no documents at all when they come seeking admission. Some, who have been living in Delhi, have migrated from villages in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in recent years and don’t have a voter ID or birth certificates. This order will now change how we give admission to children,” he said.
An official in the Directorate of Education said that while no written instructions have been provided to schools regarding the documents that are permissible, the expectation is for all children to have Aadhaar cards and birth certificates.
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