‘Can’t allow schools to run like shops’

NEW DELHI: Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung on Monday sought the dismissal of the petition filed by a Private Schools committee at the Delhi High Court.

The petition was filed against last year’s guidelines for nursery admission in the Capital.

The L-G, in his response to the petition, said the private unaided schools were seeking “an undue privilege in the garb of autonomy in the matter of right to admit students of their own choice.” Jung said, “Commercialisation of education is prohibited; educational institutes cannot be allowed to run as teaching shops as the same would be detrimental to equal opportunity to children.”

The December 18, 2013 notification had cancelled the ‘management quota’ and introduced a point system, giving maximum credit to children residing within an 8-km radius of the school.

The court will continue to hear the L-G’s response on Tuesday. Earlier, the court had refused to stay the new norms for this year’s nursery admissions. But it had allowed private schools’ plea to be heard on merit at a later date.

Jung said, in the absence of criteria for nursery admissions, both parents and children are subjected to various screening procedures including written tests and interviews. Section 13 of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 prohibits any kind of screening procedure for admission in schools including private unaided recognised schools. “Needless to say, the experience is not only traumatic for the children and their parents but also a pathway for corruption,” Jung said.