Ahmedabad's pvt schools flouting admission norms: PIL

A public interest litigation filed in the high court has once again brought to notice the alleged rampant flouting of admission norms by private schools particularly for admission to the primary and pre-primary sections.

A bench of acting chief justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and justice JB Pardiwala has issued notices to the state education department, returnable in three weeks, in the matter. It has also asked that a private school Maharaja Agrasen be made a party in the case.

The PIL filed by Prakash Kapadia of Jageja Gujarat, alleges that private schools are blatantly flouting government’s admission norms.

According to the petition, the Gujarat government through its resolutions, have clearly stated that no child or parent should be interviewed or subject to entrance exams for admission to private schools.

The PIL states that as per rules a child should be given admission in the pre-primary or primary section either by way of draw system or through first-come-first serve basis. Appearing for the petitioner, counsels Parul Joshi and Rashmin Jani argued that private schools were coming up with unique ways to circumvent this resolution.

The petition further alleges that private schools have also failed to keep a mandatory reserved quota for students from the backward or economically weaker sections of the society, as prescribed by the government resolution.