Haryana pvt schools deny admissions under Rule 134A

AMBALA: A day after Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar announced an increase in reimbursements to private schools for admissions under Rule 134A, the schools have demanded a change in the payment system and denied admissions to students under the rule.

On Friday, Khattar had announced a raise of Rs 200 per student to private schools as reimbursements in the existing system of Rs 300 and Rs 500 in villages for classes 1 to 5 and for classes 6 to 8, respectively, and Rs 500 and Rs 700 for both the categories for schools in the urban region.

The CM also announced the constitution of a three-member district-level committee to verify the income certificates of parents, hoping that the stalemate over the admissions will end.

There is a 10% quota fixed in private schools for children under the EWS and as per rough estimates, around 42,000 students are seeking admissions under Rule 134A of the Haryana School Education Rule.

However, due to a tussle between the schools and the government, students remain at the receiving end for weeks. Many parents have been protesting against the delay and the admission date has been extended at least thrice. Now, the last date has been fixed as January 15.

Reacting to the development, the national president of the National Independent Schools Alliance held a press conference at his office in Ambala Cantonment and said the amount pending since 2015-2016 should be paid with 12% interest and admissions will not commence until there is clarity in the payment system.

“The amount that has been fixed separately in villages and cities should be identical for both the regions. In Delhi, the Kejriwal government pays Rs 2,100 per student for both the categories, more than thrice what we are paid in Haryana,” Sharma said.

President of another school body, Integrated Private School Welfare Society, Saurabh Kapoor said the government should pay them as per the rules of the RTE Act that will be somewhere between Rs 2,500 to Rs 3,000. “Till our previous dues are not cleared and we are not paid as per the RTE, we will not admit students in our schools,” he added, while the vice-president of the Haryana Progressive Schools Conference, Prashant Munjal said income certificate verification should be done on previous students as well.

Munjal’s Association has also filed a case in the Punjab and Haryana HC for which the next hearing is scheduled for February 28.