School denies admission to kid

It pounces on wrong date of birth in application form, defies DoE

A well known school in the city has been denying admission to a child for a year because her father had mentioned the wrong date of birth during filing her admission form.

Bal Bharati School, Rohini, has been refusing to accept the Directorate of Education’s order of letting the child attend the school.

Arun Kumar Singh, parent of the child, had applied for his two daughters’ admission in nursery under the Economically Weaker Section category for 2011-12 academic session.

Both children, now aged five and six years old, managed to get their names on the list after the draw of lots.  While filing the forms, Arun made a mistake of mentioning November 19, 2007 as both children’s date of birth.

When documents were being verified, the school management accepted the birth certificates that stated 1997 and 1996 as their birth dates.

“Instead of telling me that the dates were the same in the admission form, the school authorities kept this to themselves. Later, they alleged that they had received complaints from outsiders saying I was trying to lie to school authorities by claiming that my daughters were twins,” said Arun.

Arun gave in writing that it was a mistake and not a deliberate act.  “But school authorities portrayed this letter as a confession that he was trying to forge documents.
Twins are not given preference on any account, then why would he tamper with the admission procedure?” said Khagesh Jha, lawyer and right to education activist.

When school authorities approached C K P Naidu, deputy education officer, DoE, he gave a written statement that said: “If the parent has cheated for his child’s admission, let her be removed from the school.”

Parents alleged that the education officer did not call them for verification and their younger daughter was thrown out of school.

This matter was sent to the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights, which directed the school in December 2011 to admit the child for 2012-13 academic session.

The commission’s order states, “A child, once granted admission in any school, may not be struck by the authority on the ground of absence of birth certificate or other documents. You are advised to consider the case for granting admission to the child immediately in the best interest of the child and reduce further harassment.”

But the school has refused to admit her, saying it will follow the previous order given by the education officer.

Jha wrote to the deputy director of education, Directorate of Education, on
Thursday asking for explanation about the delay in admitting the child. School authorities refused to comment on the issue.