Kejriwal's master stroke: Scraps all admission quotas from pvt schools, except EWS

There will be 25% quota for Extremely Weaker Section (EWS) and 75% of seats will be available to general public

Delivering a master stroke that will provide big relief to the parents seeking admission for their kids in private schools and will have long-term bearing on Delhi's education system, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government on Wednesday ordered scrapping of all admission quotas from private schools, except 25% reservation for children belonging to the Extremely Weaker Section (EWS).

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said, "There will be only 25% quota for EWS students, while the schools will have to be made available 75% of seats to general public."

Denouncing private schools 'unreasonable admission criteria', Kejriwal said, "We have scrapped 62 criteria of admission process in private schools that were unreasonable and discriminatory."

"The Delhi High Court has directed that the criteria and admission process has to be fair transparent and reasonable," said Kejriwal.

"Abiding by the HC's direction, the Delhi Government in December had asked all private schools to make their own criteria for making the admission process transparent, and upload those criteria on your website, and also upload on your website that which child has got how many marks under which criteria" he said.

"However, when we received their criteria for admission and we complied those criteria, we found 62 of them unreasonable and discriminatory, and thus, order the scrapping of those criteria," he added.

The Chief Minister said it had been done in order to make the admission process in private schools transparent and people-friendly.

When asked if schools refuse to abide by the government's order, he said "The government can do anything; schools can be derecognised or the government can take over such schools.