Fewer takers for EWS seats in schools in recent years

New Delhi: Over the years, the number of seats offered to the economically weaker sections and disadvantaged groups (EWS/DG) students at the entry level in private schools has seen a drop. When in 2018-19 there were around 45,859 seats and 33,553 students got admission, the number fell in 2023-24 to 35,186 seats, for which 28,467 students were admitted.This information was shared by Delhi government’s education department in the assembly on Friday to the question raised by BJP MLA and leader of Opposition Ramvir Singh Bidhuri.Section 12 (1) (C ) of the Right to Education Act reserves 25% of the seats for the EWS/DG category in private schools. Out of this 25%,3% of the seats are reserved for children with specialneeds (CWSN).Earlier, the admission under this category used to be held offline in each school. However, since 2016-17, the Directorate of Education has conducted centralised admission. The application is invited online and then a computerised draw of lots is conducted to select the student.In 2016-17 and 2017-18, the online admission was conducted only for schools under the Directorate of Education. In 2016-17, there were 28,193 seats on offer of which 19,796 were taken. A year later, the number of seats increased to 31,664 and around 25,154 got admission under the category.Since 2018-19, private schools recognised by the local government body also became part of the centralised admission process. The number of seats went up to 45,859, with 33,553 eventual admissions. In 2020-21, when the maximum number of 47,647 seats were offered, 33,241 children were admitted. The highest number of admissions, however, took place in 2019-20 when out of the 45,679 seats offered, 34,414 got taken.Soon after in 2021-22, there was the lowest number of admissions recorded when only 25,156 of the 35,532 seats were claimed and allocated.Many of the schools attribute the decrease in the total number of seats to the pandemic. “During the Covid period, parents lost their jobs and moved out children from the smaller private schools. The number of EWS seats is a ratio of the number of general category seats for which admission is offered. But when the schools saw fewer admissions in the general category, the EWS/DG seats offeredalso reduced,” explained a school principal. The schools filed a case in Delhi High Court on the issue, but the court decreed that the schools had toadmit all students selected through the draw of lots.Delhi government is yet to provide a response on the decline in EWS/DG admissions. However, in the assembly, education minister Atishi attributed the drop to several reasons, including a higher number of applications for some prestigious schools and a lower number of applications for others schools, resulting in seats remaining vacant. She underlined that the entire admission process for EWS quota seats was online with no manual intervention. She also said that arbitrary actions by schools in the admission process were addressed by sending notices to them.