Pvt schools urge DoE to reconsider management quota scrapping

Several private schools in the national capital have approached the Directorate of Education (DoE) urging it to reconsider the move of scrapping the management quota for nursery admissions, even as a few schools have started amending their criteria.
Alleging that the move was a "threat to school's autonomy", the Action Committee for Unaided Recognised Public Schools (ACURPS), an umbrella body of Delhi's private and unaided school associations, has submitted a representation to DoE in this regard.
"We have submitted a representation to DoE urging them to reconsider the decision and withdraw the notification in this regard. The major issue here is not with the management quota but the arbitrary scrapping of it which is an attack on schools' autonomy granted to us by Constitution," a member of the committee said.

On the other hand, some schools have started toeing the line and have updated their admission criteria. Queens' Valley School, Dwarka which had earlier reserved 20 per cent seats under the management quota, has now merged the seats under general category.
Scrapping 32 per cent management quota, Sachdeva School, has updated its criteria in its three branches in Pitampura, Rohini and Sachdeva Global School, Dwarka.
PP International School, Pitampura has also followed the same move.

Indraprastha International School, Dwarka and Paschim Vihar, have also notified their new criteria after removing the management quota.
However, they have reserved 20 pc seats each under the quota for siblings, alumni and staff ward.

In a far-reaching decision, the government had last week scrapped management quota and all other reservations except the EWS category in private schools for nursery admissions and warned that erring institutions that they would be taken over by Education department if they fail to implement the order.
The action committee of which over 400 reputed schools are member, had moved Delhi High Court in 2014 after Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung had notified the scrapping of quota then.
A Single Bench had then granted autonomy to the schools to decide the quotas.
The government had challenged the judgment seeking a stay before a Division Bench, but the matter is still pending. A hearing in the matter will come up on January 21.

The committee's legal cell, which met today to decide the further strategy resolved to wait till Jan 21 and act according to the decision announced by the court.
The panel has also said that such an announcement by the government at at time when the matter is sub-judice, amounts to "contempt of court".