News
EWS admissions: Not quite what we expected from it.
Students take admissions under the EWS quota are having an uncomfortable journey. Being singled out in class, repeated demands for fees, being avoided, beaten up are a few of the things children are facing daily in class.
Sometimes the best laid plans can be unravelled in the smallest of ways. The government’s policy decision to allow admission to students from the EWS category in unaided schools has already started unravelling. The controversy of EWS admissions has transcended private schools, government, parents and is directly affecting the students who are bearing the brunt of the loopholes in the state government's policy for admissions of EWS students under 134A.
The additional deputy commissioner met with some parents on Monday who complained that their ward was facing harassment at the school for payment of fee which they are not even liable for. The management embarrasses the child again and again by asking for money again and again in the class.
In one such case a ninth grader Ankit has been allegedly slapped twice by DPS Manesar Chairman Ravidra Yadav. In fact, he was told to not to come back to school and neither to send his younger sister to school ever again.
"My son has been at the receiving end in various such episodes, he has even been slapped twice which has left him completely uninterested in going to school anymore. They have not even given me his results for the last year declining to reveal whether he passed or failed," said Ankit’s father.
He added that he despite admitting his son under the BPL category, he has already paid the school ₹25000 and now the school has raised a demand of over one lakh. School administration, in their defence has vehemently declined the parents’ claims.
"The parents are simply lying. All I did was to ask for some documents required for registration for class ten exams," said Yadav.
"We have been told by the parents that the students admitted under the EWS category are being asked for fee by the schools. We are looking into the matter and will take appropriate action in the cases," said ADC Vinay Pratap Singh.
Ankit is just one of the many victims of the state's faulty EWS rule. A sizeable chunk of students admitted under the EWS category face one or the other bias and are subject to mental harassment and bias one way or the other.
A primary teacher from one of top schools in Gurgaon insisted on anonymity while sharing that she gets requests from a lot of other parents to not to let their kids mingle with the EWS kids. She added that with every grade it becomes more difficult for her and her colleagues to conceal the difference between the EWS and the others students
Aparna Balasundaram, a child psychologist and parenting expert said that EWS kids are more susceptible to bullying in schools. She quoted an example from her one workshop where the kids had to share how they helped their parents at home. While the other kids spoke of laying down the table, the EWS kids were mocked at by others when they mentioned helping their parents with the dishes.
Click here to read the original story by Shubhra Pant