Reimbursement for EWS kids: Edu secy to meet pvt school assn over offline issue

NEW DELHI: Delhi’s education secretary has called one of the budget private school associations for a meeting on November 28 regarding the reimbursement for children admitted under Economically Weaker Section/Disadvantaged (EWS/DG) category in offline mode. The schools had petitioned the President of India office over the delay on the part of the directorate of education (DoE) to release funds.
On August 22, 2022, DoE issued an order and said students admitted by private recognised schools on government land as well as private land at their own level without due process/approval of DoE will be segregated and not be processed for payment/ reimbursement.These admissions took place after 2016-17.
Following the order, Private Land Public Schools (PLPS) Trust had moved the Delhi high court.
Prior to 2016-17, the registration process for EWS/DG admission used to be conducted by the schools. The schools used to take offline forms and conduct the draw of lots. Since 2016-17, the admission has been conducted online for the entry-level classes – nursery, KG and I.
Following the direction of the high court, DoE had said that they would conduct physical verification of such cases and process reimbursement.
In the letter to the President, the school association said, “DoE has denied the reimbursement of thousands of offline students of EWS and DG category students to the private unaided schools of Delhi. Due to this decision, the future of these students is in big danger. The honourable court also directs them to approve all offline admissions till February 23 this year after scrutiny of the documents. But the department is rejecting the names of many students on the pretext of something or the other.”
Chandrakant Singh, the national general secretary of the association, estimated that there are over 50,000 such students who are studying under this quota and admitted offline. “Citing a gap in income certificate, spelling mistakes and other reasons, the department has been rejecting the applications. We schools are in trouble and the future of the children is also at stake,” said Singh.
Earlier, the under secretary at President’s Secretariat had forwarded the complaints to Delhi's chief secretary and asked the official to communicate the action taken directly to the association. Even the private secretary to the President sent out an email and stated that, “the representation may be forwarded to the LG, Delhi with an acknowledgement to be sender endorsed on the forwarding letter.” No DoE official provided a response on the matter.