“For the parents seeking admission under the EWS category, the schools will have to extend their dates for the registration,” Education minister Arvinder Singh Lovely told Newsline. “That means, for EWS parents, the forms will be available for four-five days extra after the January 15.”

The government, meanwhile, also clarified that it will not be able to afford payment of fees of private schools for each EWS student. This was conveyed to the private schools in a meeting held on Wednesday at the Directorate of Education. The meeting was attended by Director of School Education, P Krishnamurthy and various private unaided recognised schools’ bodies and school principals.

The Right to Education Act mandates that schools reserve 25 per cent of seats for the EWS category at the entry level — the government is to reimburse the amount spent on every such child.

Senior officials of the Education department confirmed to Newsline that the government is ready to pay schools anything between Rs 1,200 and Rs 1,500 per child per month. “The exact amount will be decided in a couple of days,” said a senior official.

Schools, however, are not happy with the decision. The Action Committee for the private-unaided recognised schools in the city has, meanwhile, said there has been no communication from the Education department about the amount that will be reimbursed to them. “The government is saying that they will reimburse the amount they spend on a child in a government school, but they have not disclosed the amount to us so far.”

The schools that got their land on “concessional rates” will get reimbursement for only 10 per cent of the EWS seats they reserve. Even before the RTE Act, they had to reserve at least 15 per cent seats for the EWS.

“Rs 1200 to Rs 1500 is good enough amount for all schools. There are about 3,000 private schools in Delhi. And about 1,500 of them have a tuition fee of about Rs 1,200 per month. Those schools will have no issue with the reimbursement amount. Only a handful of schools that have a tuition fee of more than Rs 1,500 per month will have some issues. But the department is not ready to increase this amount,” the official added.