Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta today urged the Arvind Kejriwal government to withdraw its order fixing upper age limits for admission in government schools, claiming that it is contrary to the spirit of the RTE Act.
Gupta said the order, issued by Directorate of Education, denies Right to Education to thousands of children, especially those belonging to weaker sections of the society and residing in slums and unauthorised colonies, as it discourages them to join the main stream of education.
"The worst affected are the students belonging to weaker sections of the society whose parents have no regular source of income and fixed house to stay.
"It causes disruption in studies of their children, therefore, they are unable to get regular education as per their age... By fixing upper limit of the age, these children are not able to get admission in government schools," Gupta said in a statement.
The circular issued by the Directorate of Education on April 4, 2014 fixed the appropriate age for direct admission for the students of all classes up to class-XII from the academic session 2014-15 onwards.
The Leader of Opposition said that the government must endeavour its best to bring maximum possible number of children to mainstream of education.
"The said circular denies the Right To Education (RTE) Act to children and hence goes contrary to the spirit of the Act," he said, asking the government to withdraw it.
