Schools can’t follow old criteria,must stick to HRD norms: Lovely

The sale of nursery admission forms will begin from January 1,2011. With the implementation of the Right of Children to the Free and Compulsory Education Act,which bans any kind of screening of the child or his/her parents at the time of admission,private schools are in a fix regarding what selection criteria to follow. Earlier,the 100-point system was being followed,according to which points were allotted to the child on the basis of neighbourhood,sibling,alumni,minority and gender.

“The guidelines issued by the MHRD give some relaxation to the schools to form various categories and then go for a draw of lots,and I have asked the city schools for their suggestions on the criteria to be followed. These criteria,however,should not violate the RTE (Act),” Lovely said.

The private schools committee,however,wants the management quota to remain. “Management quota shall remain. School managements have some social responsibilities to fulfill. Schools do not want to do away with the 20 per cent management quota,” said action committee president S K Bhattacharya.

Another demand of private schools is that the 25 per cent of the total seats reserved for the Economically Weaker Section should include the five per cent staff quota as well. Ramjas School principal Rajni Arora said private schools will otherwise bear a financial brunt.

Bal Bharati Public School principal L V Sehgal,who is also vice-chairman of the National Progressive School’s Conference (NPSC),an umbrella organisation of more than 110 private schools,said: “Most of the schools will be comfortable if last year’s points system continues. In a lottery system,everything will be dependent on luck,while in the points system,parents knew how much their child would secure.” Ashok Ganguly,the former CBSE chairperson who formulated the 100-point system for admission that was being followed till this year,said if the 25 per cent EWS seats were to be selected through a draw of lots, the same system will have to be followed for the other seats as well. “After the shortlisting of candidates is done,some criteria like the points system can be followed,” he said.