Ambala: Poor response to Cheerag scheme for EWS students

Nitish Sharma

Ambala, May 29

The CM Equal Education Relief Assistance and Grant (Cheerag) scheme has evoked a poor response as just three government school students in the district took admission in private schools under the scheme.

As per the information gathered from the District Elementary Education Office, while two students got admission in Barara block, one got admission in Shahzadpur block. Only eight schools in the district were found eligible to provide admissions under the scheme this year.

Delay in issuing revised schedule

• Private school operators claimed that a delay in issuing revised schedule for admissions under the scheme was a major reason behind poor response
• Under this scheme, government school students whose parents have an annual verified income of less than Rs 1.8 lakh can enrol in private schools
• Last year, the admissions were provided from Class II, while this year the admissions will be given from Class III

Private school operators claimed that a delay in issuing revised schedule for admissions under the scheme was a major reason behind poor response. A revised schedule was issued in May, while the academic session in the schools had already started over a month ago. Moreover, due to the issue of reimbursement, very few schools offered seats under the government scheme, and majority of the schools that offered seats belong to rural areas due to which the students did’t show much interest.

Kulbhushan Sharma, president of the National Independent Schools Alliance (NISA), said: “The government is not serious about providing admissions under the scheme. The schedule issued earlier was cancelled on the pretext of Form VI not uploaded by the private schools. But if the department really wanted to provide admissions, it could have issued orders that the Form VI uploaded in the previous year will be considered final for the current session too. As many as 1,220 schools had applied for providing admissions in Haryana, but a list of only 224 was issued. The matter was raised with the department but to no avail.”

Prashant Munjal, state vice-president of the Haryana Progressive School’s Conference, said: “We were already expecting such a response for the scheme. The admissions process should be completed in April. Last year the admissions were provided from class II, while this year the admissions will be given from class III. The scheme will be phased out in coming years.”

Meanwhile, District Elementary Education Officer Sudhir Kalra said: “Three students took admissions under the Cheerag scheme this year. Infrastructure in the government schools have been improving, smart digital boards are being installed and students are also provided with tabs too. Different programmes are also being run for the students, probably due to which, the students haven’t shown much interest in shifting to private schools.”