Centre yet to approve increase in income limit to Rs 2.5 lakh

Naina Mishra

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 10

While the race to grab a seat in the city’s prestigious schools is set to begin, the recommendation made by the UT Education Department’s internal committee to enhance the income limit for EWS admission from Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh is yet to be approved by the Centre.

Keeping in view the rise in the Consumer Price Index and per capita income over the years, the UT had in September this year sent a proposal in this regard to the Ministry of Human Resource Development Department (MHRD) after taking approval from the Governor on August 22. As the proposal is still awaited, the income limit for EWS admission in the 2020-21 session will remain fixed at Rs 1.5 lakh only, an official of the department said.

A proposal was sent to Maneesh Garg, Joint Secretary (SE-II), MHRD, Department of School Education & Literacy, which reads, “An internal committee was constituted to scrutinise/examine the issue regarding enhancement of annual parent, guardian income limit from Rs 1.50 lakh per annum to Rs 2.50 lakh per annum.”

Under Section 2(e) of the Right to Education Act, 2009, a child belonging to a parent or guardian whose annual income from all sources is less than Rs 1.50 lakh is considered as a child belonging to weaker section. Private schools have to reserve 25 per cent seats of the total class strength at entry level for EWS students.

Rs 8L income limit for colleges, Rs 1.5l for schools

• While the Centre deemed the annual income limit of Rs 8 lakh from all sources under the EWS category for admission in higher educational institutes under the 10 per cent quota, there have been no deliberations on raising the income limit of weaker sections' children seeking admission in top-notch schools, contrarily.
• Parents belonging to weaker sections eye on city's top schools for admission every year through EWS quota. The admission fee of some schools itself goes up to more than Rs 70, 000 and the annual fee touches more than Rs 1 lakh, thus making nursery admissions a costly affair.
• Nitin Goyal, president of the Chandigarh Parents' Association, said, “Running a household with an annual income of Rs 1.5 lakh is near to impossible in a city like Chandigarh, which is why there are very few eligible applicants. Private schools have been taking advantage of the department's insensitivity in raising the income limit and they convert vacant EWS seats into paid seats. Ironically, the income limit for admission in higher education is expanded to Rs 8 lakh. How can the Centre ensure proper education by ignoring school education?”