Northeast schools fare worst at filling EWS seats, south Delhi best

Private schools in Delhi’s northeast districts have the poorest record of filling seats at entry level class reserved for economically weaker section and disadvantaged groups (EWS/DG), with only 11% of such seats filled in 2016-17, according to a study.

As per the Right to Education Act, 2009, section 12 (1) (c), private unaided schools have to provide free and compulsory education to EWS/DG children, who should constitute at least one-fourth of the total strength of Class 1 or preschool education.

A survey by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) said that private schools in northeast Delhi have fallen short by 14% on the target to fill 25% seats from EWS/DG category students. Meanwhile, schools in south Delhi have reported the lowest shortfall of 3% while filling the seats.

According to the survey, schools in northeast and ‘southwest B’ districts are performing the worst with high number of schools in 2016-17 that have reported very low compliance with norms under RTE Act.

“Out of the 1,145 schools, 67.7% schools have a shortfall of around 0-11%; 16.75% of schools have a shortfall of 11-19%; and 15.8% schools have shortfall of 24-25%,” the study said.

“As per the analysis of the data, it is clear that most schools don’t take any initiative to fill the empty seats, while trying to fill it with general category students,” the study said.

The study said parents of students from economically weaker sections cited cost of extracurricular activities and books as the major reasons why their kids had to drop out of private schools. It went on to add that inadequate reimbursement on education expenditures also led to rise in dropout rate for EWS students.

The study found that overall

compliance with the norms under RTE Act has been increasing since 2010-11, but it has remained stagnant for last two years. For 2015-16 and 2016-17 academic session, 7% of seats across Delhi for EWS/DG category students have either gone vacant or

were given to regular students.

The NCPCR study, for the period of 2010-2016, was based on admission data submitted by 663 schools to Directorate of Education (DoE). But, for 2017, the admission data from 1,145 schools was taken from the DoE website.