Increasing school enrolment puts education dept under pressure

Increasing number of students in the city’s government schools, which otherwise would be a positive sign, is apparently unnerving the education department, which is coming up with new norms to nip the problem. If officials are to be believed, the number of students in the city has overshot the number of children in the city as per census reports.

Increasing number of students in the city’s government schools, which otherwise would be a positive sign, is apparently unnerving the education department, which is coming up with new norms to nip the problem.

If officials are to be believed, the number of students in the city has overshot the number of children in the city as per census reports.

Officials are blaming parents from neighbouring cities who are getting their children admitted in the schools in UT.

This, they say, overburdens the schools and impacts the efficiency of these schools making implementation of policies difficult.

“We want our students to study in the best possible environment with better infrastructure facilities than what they have now and it is very important to control the enrolments,” said Kamlesh Kumar, director of public instruction, schools (DPI(S)).

Under the Right to Education Act, states and UTs have been directed to focus mainly on the welfare of students of its region but according to the officials, parents tend to forge residential proofs or show the documents of their rented accommodation in order to get their wards admitted in the schools in the city.

In order to curb the increasing strength of students, Chandigarh education department is coming up with new norms for the schools for the upcoming session.

As per the new norms, the schools will have to freeze the number of vacancies beforehand and not grant admissions after the vacancies are filled.

“In order to scrutinise the claims of the parents who apply for admission for their children on the basis of their rented accommodation, they would also be asked to produce documents such as residence proof, bank account details, Aadhaar card, voter ID and the rent agreement of their accommodation.

Moreover, in order to restrict circumvention of norms, teams would be sent to their houses for physical verification,” said Kumar adding that the main idea behind the move was to provide the best education with the available resources.

Apart from this the department is also planning to give prospectus for admission to all classes.