The number of seats for the general category in city schools is set to go down as the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act makes it mandatory for unaided recognised private schools to reserve 25 per cent of their total seats for the economically weaker sections (EWS). Earlier,only 10 to 15 per cent seats were reserved for the EWS. S L Jain,vice-chairperson of the Action Committee for Unaided Recognised Private Schools in Delhi,explained,If I have 100 seats in my school for nursery,earlier,only 10 to 15 students were from the EWS. And the seats available to the general category were 85 to 90. Now,I will have to reserve 25 seats for the EWS category. So the number of seats available to the general category is 75. Meanwhile,the management quota is adding to the anxiety of the parents. If schools keep the management quota,it will reduce chances (for general students) further, said Nupur Awasthi,a parent. Rajan Arora,founder of nurseryadmissions.com,a blog for admissions-related queries,said: There is no mention of management quota in the RTE Act,which in itself would defeat the guidelines issued by the HRD if implemented. Management quota falls outside the guidelines,unless it can be justified and also be done on a random basis. Jain,however,said: Private schools are flooded with requests from politicians and local MLAs to admit a child. The quota will help us. Admission forms will be sold from January 1 to January 15.
