Pvt schools reject Aadhar Card as address proof

Ananya Panda 

Tribune News Service 

New Delhi, January 13

Parents seeking admission to the entry level class for their wards in the national Capital's private and unaided schools remain a harried lot with many popular schools refusing to accept "Aadhar Card" as a valid residence proof.

Some  others have gone a step further and specified "Passport/Voter ID of both parents" among the options as acceptable residence proof - in contravention to the Directorate of Education (DoE) guidelines. 

A large number of schools are also rejecting "registered rent agreement" as a valid address proof unlike previous years' practice. 

On Wednesday, complaints from more than 50 parents were received by activist Sumit Vohra, who runs a helpdesk for nursery admissions and has a portal for the same, in this regard. 

"Over 50 schools have complained against schools to us. Most of them are prominent ones that are not accepting rent deed as valid proof with even Montfort School mentioning it on its website," Vohra told The Tribune. 

Noting that there are others that are not accepting Aadhar and asking for both parents address, Vohra added, "Most of the schools are either verbally denying or have notified it on their website, such as Mountfort. Sardar Patel Vidyalaya only wants Passport/Voter ID of both parents. As per DoE notification, only one parent's address is required and Aadhar is a valid address document even if they are minority schools, they are covered under Delhi Education Act 1973 of DoE." 

"Mostly all schools are refusing to accept rent agreement as proof of residence, hence leaving people who are on rent in a bad situation, and no hope for our children to get into good schools this year. Asking for domicile certificate which takes 14 to 21 days to get after filling up the form online and that isn't possible as admissions close on January 22. We people on rent need desperate help," said Nikita, one of the many  parents seeking admission for her child. 

Some schools that have refused admissions on the criteria mentioned are: Salwan Public School, Sri Venkateshwara School, CRPF School (Dwarka), Indraprastha School, Sachdeva Global School, Venkateshwar International, Indian Heights school, GD Goenka Vasant Kunj, Banyan Tree School, Vidya Niketan Saket, Raghubir singh Junior Modern School, Humayun Road, Salwan Public School, Pusa Road, Monfort School, Sarvodhya, Bal Baharti, Springdales and St Michael on PUSA Road, Bal Bharati Public School (Pitampura) and (Rohini), APJ, (Pitampura), N K Bagrodia (Rohini) DPS (Rohini) and RK Puram, Ryan International School (Mayur Vihar Ph III) and Mother's International.

There are still more schools who have refused admissions.