Govt sleeps as schools openly flout nursery rule

By Ritika Chopra in New Delhi

IT APPEARS even a law cannot stop private schools in the Capital from discriminating in nursery admissions.

Though the Right to Education ( RTE) Act bans schools from profiling parents to give admission to children, several schools have made parents’ profession an admission criterion.

The Delhi government had earlier warned schools against doing this. But the education department is yet to initiate any action against the schools which have announced points for parents’ professions.

The admission criteria of four branches of Delhi Public School — RK Puram, Mathura Road, Vasant Kunj and Rohini — and Bal Bhawan School in Mayur Vihar favours kids whose parents belong to specific professions.

While the Mathura Road and RK Puram branches of DPS have done it indirectly by awarding points to parents who have participated in Asiad, Commonwealth Games or Olympics, others have set aside as many as 10 points for certain professions.

This is a blatant violation of the provisions of the RTE Act and the admission guidelines issued by the state government on November 15 last year.

Making parents’ profession or education an admission criterion is perceived as discriminatory since the children of businessmen, housewives, parents in other professions and those who are lesser qualified find it tough to get admission.

Under the RTE Act, every child has the right to get education irrespective of whether his/ her parents are educated or not and what they do for a living.

Principals of none of these schools, except DPS RK Puram, could be reached for comments despite repeated attempts.

And the line of defence adopted by D. R. Saini, principal of DPS, RK Puram, was unsatisfactory.

“ The question of discriminating on the basis of parents’ professional background does not arise as sport is not a profession,” he said.

Education department officials said the schools resorting to parents’ profiling were on their radar. “ We are watching them and will soon take action. The department’s stand against profiling is very clear. Awarding point to parents who are, say, national awardees, clearly amounts to discrimination. Children whose parents are not achievers will clearly suffer because of this,” an official said.

The government’s wait- andwatch approach, however, could mean that the schools could be let off easily this year also.

The admission of children on the basis of parents’ educational and/ or professional background had raised a storm last year, too.

But the government woke up only after most schools had wrapped up their admission process.

The schools got away with the discrimination since it was too late to scrap their admissions.

Delhi’s education minister Arvinder Singh Lovely, who had warned schools against making parents’ profile an admission criterion, was not available for comment despite repeated attempts.

Parents of tiny tots are upset with the schools as well as the government. “ The government has failed to make an example of the erring schools in the past. So they have no fear,” said a parent.

Sumit Vohra, founder of admissionsnursery.com , said: “ The government was supposed to vet the admission criteria of all the schools. The fact that these schools have openly declared their discriminatory criteria means the education department officials have failed to do their job.”

NO FEAR OF ACTION

What is the rule on profiling of parents?

The RTE Act and the admission guidelines of the Delhi government prohibit private schools from profiling children on the basis of their parents profession/ education

Why is it so?

Every child has the right to get education irrespective of whether his/ her parents are educated or uneducated and what they do for a living

What action can an erring school invite?

Delhi’s education minister had warned schools that admissions would be scrapped if they flouted it

Why have schools ignored this rule?

The government develops a cold feet in taking action. Also, the admission process is already over by the time the government wakes up