Capital’s schools violate education act, force students to sit for tests

ADMISSION Act clearly states that for admissions to classes 1-8, schools cannot ask students to write tests or appear for interactions

NEW DELHI: Nursery admissions may be under the scanner in the city but schools tend to get away with violating the Right to Education Act when it comes to admission in senior classes.

While the RTE clearly states that for admissions between classes 1 and 8 schools cannot ask students to write tests or appear for interactions, schools in the city routinely ask students seeking admission in classes 5, 6 and 8 to do so.

The latest in the list of these schools is Modern School, Barakhamba Road. The school invited aspirants who wanted admission in class 6 for an interaction.

A list of candidates who were shortlisted for admissions was also put up on the website on Tuesday.

When asked about the scheduled interaction, the principal of the school, Vijay Datta, asked for some time to ‘find out about the notice’. He however, did not respond to calls and messages after that.

The website of the school shows the link where the names of the shortlisted candidates can be seen. The link, however, became inactive on Wednesday. MARCH 18, 2015

Hindustan Times has a copy of the original notice posted on the school website. According to the notice, the interactive session will be held on March 21 at 9.30 am. Parents have been asked to drop the children to school at 9 am and pick them up by 11 am.

According to activists, this is not the first time this has happened and several other schools do the same.

“Every year, we get a large number of complaints by parents regarding similar tests being conducted by schools in senior classes. In the admission season, most of the attention is centred on nursery. Schools in the city are, however, guilty of flouting RTE guidelines,” said Khagesh Jha, member, Social Jurist, an NGO that works in the field of education.

Another anomaly that Jha points out is that schools refuse to implement EWS quota reservations in non-entry level classes. According to rules, 20% of the students admitted in classes above nursery, kindergarten or 1 are supposed to be from the EWS category. This is because schools were given land on very low rates.

“Schools are supposed to notify admission vacancies, along with the seats for EWS category, clearly in admission notices. None of them, however, do it,” Jha added.