Schools keep reserved seats vacant till HC order / Students pay for teachers in Delhi schools

Schools keep reserved seats vacant till HC order

Shruti Maheshwari

New Delhi, November 6

A large number of schools operating from non-DDA land are not admitting children from economically weaker sections. They have instead, kept seats vacant till the ongoing case is resolved in the Delhi High Court.

In a recent meeting of the action committee — a body representing Delhi’s private schools — it was decided that these institutions would keep the mandatory 20 per cent seats aside during the ongoing admission process.

“We will keep the seats vacant and admit students only to the other seats,” R.C. Shekhar, Principal, Gyan Bharti School said.

“Depending on the court verdict, schools can go ahead and admit students from the general quota or the economically weaker section as the case may be,” action committee secretary S.L. Jain said.

Committee head T.R. Gupta said that they had asked Union HRD minister Arjun Singh for allowing classes for the weaker sections in the evenings. “The bright ones from this lot can then be integrated into the morning school,” he added.

Meanwhile, some other institutions like Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and Delhi Public School, Mathura Road have decided to adopt a wait and watch policy and are yet to decide on their policy vis-à-vis reservation.

Students pay for teachers in Delhi schools

By Pramod Kumar

New Delhi, Nov. 4: Students going to some of the government-run schools in Delhi are being made to pay an "additional" monthly fee ranging from Rs 10 to 45 for "hiring private teachers" to teach them because of shortage of teachers. A majority of government-run schools, which are facing shortage of teachers, have now adopted this method of charging a fee from the students to hire private teachers to teach them.

Seven-year-old Ritesh Jain (name changed), studying in Class 3 of Sarvodya Balika Vidyalaya, Avantika, Sector I, Rohini, paid an extra fee of Rs 10 to the school administration last month for hiring private teachers. The school administration categorically told the parents of all students to pay an additional fee of Rs 10 for hiring private teachers for the school. The parents were also asked to give it in writing if they agree to hire a private teacher.

Earlier, students of this school used to pay just Rs 20 as monthly fee to the school administration. Now, they are paying Rs 31.

However, it is not mentioned in the fee receipts that the additional fee of Rs 10 is being charged for hiring private teachers.

Interestingly, there is no government policy on this. The schools are apparently implementing this policy on their own.

Same is the case with a government-run higher secondary school in the Ramesh Park area. For the first time, the school administration is charging Rs 45 from each student of Class 8 as monthly fee. Students of the school don’t know as to why the amount is being charged from them.

Meanwhile, the Delhi government has decided to close down more than 50 schools in the city. The reason: there are few students.

Of the 53 middle, secondary and senior secondary schools to be closed, some are more than 15 years old and have less than 300 students each on their rolls. As a result, it has become difficult for the administration to run them. The students of these schools will be accommodated in other schools.

The education department of the Delhi government closed 30 schools in 2003. This year, the government has closed 25 schools so far.

A Delhi government-run senior secondary school near Kinari Bazar at Gali Barf Wali in the walled city area has only 47 students. Residents of the area claim that this school is more than 15 years old. Now, the government has decided to shut down the school.

Besides, a government-run senior secondary school near Sushila Mohan Marg will also be closed down as it has only 50 students. While the government-run senior secondary school in Molar Band has just 55 students, a middle school situated near the Railway Colony in the Paharganj area has 71 schools. Another middle school situated in the Paharganj area also has only 77 students.

There are also several government-run schools where the number of students are close to 300. Still, these will be closed down. They include a senior secondary school in Chhawla (291), a middle school in R.K. Puram-4 (291), a senior secondary school in Kangan Heri (290), a senior secondary school in Dichaon Kalan (290) and a middle school (Urdu medium) in Bulbuli Khana (288).