40% of EWS seats still vacant in Delhi schools

NEW DELHI: Over 40% of the seats reserved in city private schools for poor and disadvantaged children, as well as those with special needs, are yet to be filled seven months after the admission process began, official data reveals.
The vacant seats include the "not reported", "in-waiting" and "status not updated" categories. As per the data, updated till August 13, 14,028 students did not report for admission despite seats being allotted, while 1,338 students were in-waiting.Data of 4,152 students had not been updated.
Under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 25% seats of seats in private schools have to be reserved for economically weaker sections and disadvantaged children. Starting this year, 22% has been set aside for EWS/DG and 3% for children with special needs (CWSN).
The department of education has now asked the district officials to verify the data on students who had not reported, by calling up their parents. On the data that has not been updated, district officials have been asked to follow up with the schools.
Schools not filling up the quota for EWS students is a recurring problem in the capital.
‘More EWS seats filled this year’
The admission under the EWS/DG and CWSN categories for entry level classes (nursery/KG/class I) have been ongoing since February. The Directorate of Education (DoE) invites online application after which a centralised draw of lots is held. “The in-waiting and statusnot-updated cases should be reduced to zero. It is relevant to add that due to in-waiting or pending updation of the candidates, DoE is not able to conduct the next draw of lots,” added the circular.
This year, there were a total of 45,000 seats in over 1,600 private schools in the category. Out of this, 32,500 students have been admitted in different private schools. Further there are 281 cases of provisional admission. The DoE had given an extension till August 14 for completion of admissions.
Speaking to TOI, Director (DoE), Binay Bhushan, said, “This year, more seats have been filled during this period compared to last year but we will continue to conduct draw of lots till all seats are filled.” In the 2018-19 session, there were around 12,000 seats out of 48000, where the students did not report for admission, despite conducting nine draw of lots. This year, some schools reported a drop in seats, resulting in the total number of seats coming down to 45000.
“It is the smaller private schools where the students do not report for admission. As they have applied for the quota, they are allotted the school, but do not take admission. The private schools, however, in no way can deny admission to any children,” Bhushan said. Another reason attributed by another official is not receiving adequate applications from CWSN. This year, the 3% seats for CWSN were clubbed with the 25% category. “We had to invite a fresh round of applications in this category. The first draw of lots had to be postponed,” added the official.