Govt issues SOP for EWS admissions under RTE Act, parents apprehensive

The Punjab Government has finally issued a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for admissions to private unaided schools under the Right to Education Act — with 25 per cent seats reserved for Economically Weaker Section (EWS) and Disadvantaged Group (DG) students.

This development came after a Punjab and Haryana High Court order in February mandated that the 25 per cent reservation was for the previous year’s total admissions to entry-level classes ie nursery, LKG, UKG and Class 1.

Despite the SOP, questions have been raised, by activists, NGOs and parents’ organisations, over the implementation of the quota as schools were refusing admissions due to the absence of clear SOPs.

The petitioners, who moved the High Court over the non-implementation of the RTE regulations, are calling the government’s move restrictive.

Amritsar-based Satnam Singh Gill, president of the Minority Welfare Organisation, who filed a petition in the high court over non-compliance by private schools, said most private schools neither referred to the 25 per cent quota in the prospectus nor published the letters related to departmental approval. They didn’t even display them on the notice board. And this has been going on for few years.

“Equitable education is a pressing issue. The state government has once again shown great negligence in the implementation of the RTE Act (2009) by giving preference only to entry-level classes,” Satnam said.

According to the Act, each school will have to pay a fine of Rs 10,000/day and deposit Rs 1 lakh separately in the government treasury, in case of non-compliance, but the private schools that did not meet the conditions even after Centre’s implementation, were given affiliation extension without any questions asked, he said.

Satnam argued, “When the Act has been properly implemented across the country, especially in Chandigarh, then why is Punjab shying away from implementing the provisions. Also, since recognition and affiliation extension are conditional, why are the schools violating the Act not being scrutinised?”

In his petition, he mentioned that priority should have been given to providing the compulsory free education to children aged 6 to 14.

He added that bringing only pre-nursery, LKG and UKG under the ambit of the quota and allowing bribes to schools to sell quota seats was criminal. Gill said he would approach the high court again over the lack of clarity in the allocation, the state policy and unnecessary obstacles for deserving students.

The District Education Office records suggest that they’d received only one complaint pertaining to the non-compliance of the Act over the years, and that it was resolved.

The biggest loophole has been the lack of inspection by the Education Department. While private schools, have been evading accountability, citing lack of students applying under the EWS category, the actual number of reserved seats was never revealed.

Why RTE was not fully implemented in Punjab

Punjab had not fully implementing the RTE Act due to Rule 7(4) of the Punjab RTE Rules (2011), which states, “The obligation of private unaided schools to admit 25% of students from weaker sections and disadvantaged groups under Section 12(1)(c) shall only apply if there is no government or government-aided school in the vicinity.”

The Centre’s RTE Act does not contain any such clause. This conditional clause gave private un-aided schools in Punjab a loophole to exploit and evade mandatory compliance of reservation of seats for the EWS.

This prompted former bureaucrat and social activist Jagmohan Singh Raju, to challenge the clause in the high court, pressing for the removal of the restrictive rules. While the SOP has been announced, only strict monitoring and compliance tools can its implementation, he said.