Chandigarh nursery admissions: EWS applicants may get time till March to fill forms

The UT education department is planning to extend the date of form submission for nursery schools for another two weeks. As per the plan, parents who come under economically weaker section (EWS) category will be able to submit applications of their wards till the second week of March, following which the draw of lot will be held around March 15. 

It was on December 5 last year when the education department had initially extended the date of form submission for the EWS families from December 12 to February 28, after taking into account that all private schools had not reached consensus on the number of documents required from the EWS students at the time of admission. 

Director, School Education, Rubinderjit Singh Brar, said, “Certain guidelines have to be fixed and the concerned station house officers (SHOs) have to give the report with regard to the verification of the EWS applicants. Some schools had not agreed to some of the set requirements.” 

A meeting between the UT education department and the officials of the private schools will be held on February 21 where the final date for the submission of forms will be decided. 

Going by the figures collected by the UT education department, as many as 1,772 forms have been received so far for the EWS admissions in the city’s private schools. 

As many as 669 seats are reserved for economically weaker section (EWS) students in private schools. 

However in government schools, over 40% seats are still lying vacant. The senior officials of the district education office, Sector 19, said the admissions in government schools will continue till April as most parents are not even aware about the open admissions and half of them wait for the admissions to finish at the private schools and after trying their luck there, they turn to government schools. 

The education department had issued an advisory to all schools on December 5, 2016 with regard to the documents, which shall be asked from the EWS parents for the admission. 

Several schools, including St John's High School, Sacred Heart Senior Secondary School, Carmel Convent School, St Anne's Convent School, etc, had asked for four documents: latest electricity bill, latest BSNL landline telephone bill, latest water bill and the valid rent deed with the copy of tenants’ verification by the police. 

Education dept’s website not updated for 2 years

Meanwhile, the education department’s official website has not been updated since two years as the record of EWS filled seats uploaded on the website is that of the 2015-16 academic session.