50,000 surveyed, but no child eligible

Chandigarh, December 23
The UT education department zealously went ahead with getting over 1,500 seats reserved under the Right to Education (RTE) Act in private schools for admissions to poor children, but failed to find even a single child eligible for it. In line with gaping holes in recording the EWS status, the much-awaited child-mapping results of the education department have failed to find even a single child out a total of 50,000 children surveyed in the appropriate age group for admission to nursery in the entire city.

While the records of all sectors and a majority of colonies stands at “nil”, surprisingly in areas like Faidan, almost 95 per cent of children, a majority of who are well above 10 years of age and already studying in school, have been declared eligible.

The anomalies have left private schools up against the UT for the “sham” survey that may translate into vacant seats for them. “I checked the website today and found that the colony near my school does not have a single child who the department thinks is of the right age to be admitted to nursery. I have no choice, but to convert the reserved seats into general category as I cannot afford 25 per cent seats to remain vacant. It is no rocket science to deduce that the entire survey has been made up,” said a private school principal.

While senior officials of the education department chose to be tight-lipped, the principal of a local government school said: “Frankly, we could not visit all homes and the department left us confused. It probably knew that there were not enough children so it asked us to abstain from writing nil in the age column and put a dash or zero instead. My teachers marked the column sitting in the school only.”