HYDERABAD: As an afterthought of winding up the admission process by March, private schools are in a quandary on how to fill the 25 per cent seats with children from the economically weaker sections of society. With guidelines issued by the state government to be in place by the end of April, the schools will have to tweak their setup to accommodate the numbers."The burden rests with the school managements on how they will account for the addition to their strength,” said additional state project director of Rajiv Vidya Mission (SSA), Rajaram Punna. He said schools might have to make additional teacher recruitment to maintain the teacher-to-student ratio at 1:30 and allot space for the addition. He faulted the schools for not having made the provision for allotting 25 per cent seats for students from economically weaker sections.“According to government norms, school admissions should be made between mid-April and mid-June. We will issue guidelines on admissions for academic year 2012-13 after receiving the draft from the Union ministry of human resource development,” said the official, adding that there was a probability that schools may add a separate section to accommodate EWS students for the coming academic year."There is no clarity on how students will be selected and how admissions will be routed. If we are talking about equal opportunities, then segregating students into separate sections defeats the purpose. Further, there might not be enough number of students to fill a section,” says D. Usha Reddy, principal of Meridian School and chairperson of Hyderabad Sahodaya Schools Complex, an association of CBSE and ICSE schools in the city.The annual income of parents should be less than Rs 60,000 for a student to be eligible for admission under the 25 per cent category. “Neighbourhood rules apply and the selection has to be through drawing of lots,” said K. Narayana Reddy, planning coordinator of Rajiv Vidya Mission (SSA).The initial cost of reimbursement of fees for students admitted under the EWS category will have to be borne by the state government though officials say that the central government has been asked to fund the initiative under the 12th Plan. The implementation of the scheme will cost the state government Rs 90 crore in the first year and the sum will multiply as the students move to higher classes and fresh batches are inducted.The disbursement will be made depending on the category of the school and the average annual fee calculated for the institutions in the category. The preliminary work of categorising the schools into A, B, C or D will be carried out by RVM officials and the disbursements will be made following the guidelines.The schools cannot deny admissions promised to the students already, compelling the need to bring in structural changes. However, most of the private school managements are hoping to get a stay order on the ruling. “There is a time frame of 60 to 90 days within which we can appeal for a stay. We are discussing the points on which this can be done,” said a lawyer representing individual school managements and private school associations in the city. “The guidelines will be framed by the state government after consulting legal experts among others as judgment on 12 cases filed by different school managements are pending before theHigh Court,” said Rajaram Punna.The issuance of guidelines and the reaction of private school managements will decide who blinks first.
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