JOIN US25 pc EWS reservation to hit us hard, say schools
Expressing concern over the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the constitutional validity of the Right to Education Act, private schools said on Thursday the decision will hit them hard.
The apex court bench of Chief Justice S H Kapadia and Justice Swatanter Kumar passed a judgement on Thursday which mandates government, local authority and unaided private schools to reserve 25 per cent seats for students from economically weaker sections of the society.
The judgement came in response to a host of petitions which were filed by private institutions challenging the Right to Education Act for violating their autonomy.
The schools’ contention that the reservation for poor students would drain their resources was contested by the government.
The court added that this quota will not be applicable to unaided minority institutions.
The judgement has come into effect beginning from Thursday but it will not affect the admissions which have already taken place.
Ameeta Wattal, principal of Springdales School said the endeavour will not be successful until there is full co-operation from both government and private schools.
“This is a historic judgement which will provide a platform for children to gain good education. But does the onus of providing quality education lie only with private schools?” said Wattal
“The government should strengthen its schools in such a way that people do not feel the compulsion to send their children only to a private school,” she added.
She added that the government has not paid for students who are admitted under the EWS category in last three years.
“How are we going to support non-fee paying children if the government does not support us? Schools cannot raise fees arbitrarily. The government needs to ensure adequate support for better implementation of this judgement,” she said. Sujit Bhattacharya, director of Indus World School in Greater Noida echoed similar views.
Need facilitation
“We see great merit in the role of RTE to encourage inclusive education. Now, the government has to play the role of being a true facilitator by creating transparent and robust norms for implementation, especially on reimbursement of costs to private schools,” he said.
RTE must not become a tool to harass private schools, he added. However, Amol Arora, managing director, Shemrock and Shemford Group of Schools in Rohini, has a different take on the matter.
Different backgrounds
“You cannot put the full fee paying students and the EWS category in the same class at the age of six as their learning backgrounds are different. Children are not politically correct at that age and words can hurt the psyche of poor children,” he said.
Ashok Aggarwal, an advocate and RTE campaigner, termed it as a landmark judgement. “Minority schools should not have been excluded but it is a constitutional matter which will be looked into later. This judgment will help in bringing a paradigm shift in the education sector,” he said.