Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Kamaal Hassan lives at Nizamuddin Basti in south Delhi. He has never been to school but wants his son to go to a good school so that he has a more stable future. After learning about the nursery admissions beginning Wednesday, he and his son Ibrahim, rode on his scooter and visited schools around his home. He, however, had to return home disappointed, since the schools told him that the schedule for the category he wanted to apply under has not been declared yet.
Hassan wants to admit his son to a school under the 25% seats reserved for the Economically Weaker Section/ Disadvantaged (EWS/DG) category. Like last year, this year, too, the Delhi government, which conducts online centralised admission for this category is yet to declare the schedule. Till 2015, schools in the city used to conduct admissions under this category by giving out forms and selecting the names through draw of lots — depending on the neighbourhood criterion. However, after coming to power in 2015, the AAP government took over the process and started conducting online admissions.
There are close to 31,000 seats for the nursery classes in the 1,700 schools in the city under this category. “I was told that nursery admissions will begin on Wednesday so I visited the schools. But the school authorities told me that admissions under the EWS quota will be conducted by the government online. Hearing this, I asked someone to go to a cyber cafe to fill my son’s form. I am not educated so I don’t understand anything,” said Hassan, who kept on getting calls from the person at the cyber cafe. The man on the other end of the phone told him the link for admissions under the category is not available. His three-year-old son Ibrahim will be the first in the family to go to a private school. Hassan hopes his son gets admission in the junior wing of Modern School.
Hassan was not the only one struggling to fill forms Wednesday. Hemant Negi stood outside Amity International School in Saket for hours, trying to read the notice written in English. Seeing him struggle, the school guard walked up to him and told him that he has to visit the government website to apply under the EWS category.
“I had no idea about this thing. I will now have to find someone in my locality who can help me fill the form online. Moreover, how will I get to know that the admission under this category has started?,” said Negi, who lives at Lado Sarai village.
Meanwhile, social activists, who have been facilitating EWS admissions, maintained that different schedule for admission under EWS category and the general category causes a lot of chaos. “Even last year, the process dragged on till February 15 (last date for application). Till date, not more than approximately 20,000 seats could be filled under EWS of the available 31,000. The question is, it has to be a computerised application and a draw. Then, if admissions for general category can start now, why can’t it be started simultaneously for the deprived sections also?” said Ekramul Haque, national convener, Mission Taaleem. Government officials could not be reached for comment on the issue.
