Private schools must admit kids within a kilometer: Manish Sisodia

NEW DELHI: Education minister Manish Sisodia on Monday said private schools on government land have to admit students living within 1 km of their premises.
At the same time, government sources clarified that each school will be allowed to decide what the outer limit of its “neighbourhood” will be.
Sisodia, education department officials and representatives from land-owning government agencies met private school associations to discuss the definition of “neighbourhood” for admissions.The meeting of “stakeholders” was prompted by a writ petition against the government in high court for not implementing the conditions of allotment for schools on government land.
The allotment letters of about 285 private unaided schools bear conditions related to admission of children from “localities” or “neighbourhood.” But neither the letters nor a Supreme Court order on implementation define “locality” or “neighbourhood.” In the context of the recent high court petition, the lieutenant governor asked the Delhi government to organise a meeting with “stakeholders” including the schools to work out one. There is not final decision yet — that will have to be submitted in court — and, apparently, schools have been given 24 hours to submit their comments.
“It was just a brainstorming-session with an open-ended discussion on how neighbourhood is to be defined. No other criteria for nursery admissions was brought up,” said a representative of a private school association. What the policy will be at other schools — whether there will be a separate one for them — was not discussed at all.
“The meeting was only for deciding the definition of “neighbourhood.” As for the criteria of admission, the Supreme Court already said that admission has to be on the basis of neighbourhood,” said lawyer-activist Khagesh Jha who had filed the petition and also attended the meeting.
“Some of the participants said this will infringe upon the autonomy of the schools, another suggested that the bus-routes must be factored into the definition of neighbourhood. In general, the schools have been allowed to decide what the outer limit of their “neighbourhood” will be.”