In a move that will benefit a large number of people struggling with the nursery admission of their children, the Delhi government has scrapped management quota and all other quotas except for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS).
Announcing the decision on Wednesday, the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal referred to management quota as the “biggest scandal” in education sector in the country. He said that the government would not be a mute spectator to it and the schools that failed to scrap the quota could be taken over by the education department.
“Management quota is the biggest scandal in the country which the Delhi Government is scrapping. 75 per cent admissions in the private schools will be under open category. Other than EWS category, there will be no other quota,” he added.
Warning schools of stringent action in case of violations, he said the government would use all available options against erring institutions, including takeover.
Private schools in Delhi have quotas for management, siblings, alumni and many others.
In a similar move, the government has also asked schools to scrap “discriminatory” criterion for admission. They have given a list of 62 such criterion to the schools including parents being vegetarians, non-smokers, government employees and other similar criterion.
The move to scrap all the arbitrary quotas has come as a big relief to parents. However schools have a mixed reaction to it, while some schools say that they will abide by the government orders, some hailed it as “snatching the autonomy.”