Woman Arrested in Delhi Nursery Admission Racket

Police have arrested the daughter of the alleged kingpin of a scam related to nursery schools in Delhi, who was caught posing as the mother of a child and forged documents to secure an admission at Springdales School in Dhaula Kuan.

The arrest brings the police one step closer to unravelling a racket that has brought several top city schools under the scanner. 

The arrested woman, a law student, is the daughter of Gurdeep Singh, who is the alleged mastermind behind the scam and is missing, Police said.

The police have brought in charges of forgery and impersonation against the woman, who is also believed to have been involved in more such admissions.

The scam surfaced last month after the head of one the groups Mukesh Sharma and three others Anil Kumar, Sudama Singh and Dharam Singh were arrested. 

Police have since then busted two more groups and arrested in total nine people, leading them to believe that an organized syndicate is involved in the racket. Several school officials, parents, students, touts, principals are being probed for complicity. 

The Police say there have been hundreds of such admissions in the last two years, where students are passed off as coming from economically weaker sections, and the number may go up substantially. The accused charged anything between 1 lakh and 5 lakh per admission depending on the school and the income of the parents.

Notices have been served to more than a dozen schools wherein police has sought the list of students admitted under the EWS quota and the documents furnished by them.

Well-known institutions like DPS Mathura Road, Rohini and several other DPS schools are being probed along with Bal Bharati Public School Pitampura, GD Goenka School, Modern School, Ryan International.

Source: http://www.ndtv.com/delhi-news/police-close-in-on-delhi-nursery-school-admissions-scam-kingpin-780016

AAP's draft bill bans schools from interviewing kids for nursery admissions

A draft bill submitted to the Aam Aadmi Party government could change the way nursery admission is conducted in the Capital. 

The proposal, drafted by Delhi-based NGO Social Jurist's president Ashok Aggarwal, was submitted to the government on June 29 and suggested barring schools from interviewing a child for pre-primary and preschool, where children are below the age of six, and also his/her parents. The Arvind Kejriwal government is planning to introduce the Delhi School Education (Amendment) Bill 2015, wherein school authorities interviewing a child or parents for admission to nursery class will face an imprisonment of up to 10 years. As per the Right to Education (RTE) Act, no school shall, while admitting a child, subject the child or the parents to any screening procedure. The Act also guarantees free and compulsory elementary quality education to all children aged between 6 and 14.

"There are many schools that flout the RTE rules and conduct personal interviews of children as well as their parents. We have proposed to the government to make the existing rules more stringent so that no school can defy the guidelines," Ashok Aggarwal told Mail Today.

The punishment may vary provided that the court, for any adequate and special reason to be recorded in writing, imposes a sentence of imprisonment for a term, which may be less than five years, it said. There are 1,100 government-run schools and 1,500 private schools in Delhi. "The government shall constitute a committee for the purpose of determination of fee for any standard or course of study in unaided private schools," reads the proposed draft.

Source : http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/aam-aadmi-party-delhi-school-education-bill-2015-right-to-education/1/451125.html

Nursery admissions for 2015-16 session in Delhi-NCR begins

The wait for the anxious parents is finally over as the much awaited nursery admission process has started in most of the private schools in Delhi-NCR. This year, there are many changes in the admission process. Following a series of court cases, the lieutenant governor was entrusted with deciding the admission guidelines. While his order dated December 18, 2013, was welcomed by parents, it dealt a big blow to schools.

It abolished the management quota and the "neighborhood factor" has been given priority. The order stated that only 5% staff quota will be allowed. In case the seats in the staff quota remained vacant, it would be open for other candidates. While 5% quota was reserved for girls in co-ed schools, 25% seats were reserved for students falling in the category of economically weaker section and disadvantaged groups.

This year, the education front has witnessed many faux-pas. It started with the scrapping of the four-year-undergrad program of Delhi University. On June 27, former vice-chancellor Dinesh Singh affirmed the move over the four-year degree course. There was another controversy which the university faced in May 2014 over the repetition of question paper for the fifth semester of financial management course under School of Open Leaning. This was followed by one more mistake of introducing out-of-syllabus questions, leading to cancellation of Hindi paper.

The LG's order enforced reservation of economically weaker section in minority institutions based on lease deed agreements and not the Right to Education Act. The minority schools also moved the court and got themselves exempted from the guidelines altogether. Also, one of the court cases filed by two school associations won them the autonomy to decide their own criteria and points distribution systems this year.

Source: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/education/story/nursery-admission-begins-2015-16/1/410737.html

Top 8 schools in India with Highest average aggregate

It's Chennai on top with three of its schools scoring the highest average aggregate in Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Class XII exams in 2014. Following Chennai's three DAVs is the Heritage School of Gurgaon in fourth position.

Analysis of the results showed there are eight schools in India whose average aggregate is 90% and above (English and best four subjects). State-wise too, Tamil Nadu leads with the highest average aggregate of 80.7%. However, good performance is not restricted only to schools in metros as the two schools which have 100% students scoring 80% and above are from Satna in Madhya Pradesh and Jalgaon in Maharashtra.

The three schools with the highest nationwide average aggregate are DAV Girls Senior Secondary, Lloyds Road, DAV Senior Secondary, Mogappair, and DAV Boys Senior Secondary, Lloyds Road, all from Chennai, with 91%, 90.7% and 90.6%, respectively. In all, there are eight schools among the private and Kendriya Vidyalayas affiliated to CBSE which have average aggregate (which includes English and best of four subjects) of 90% and above.

In all, 1.59 lakh (27.8%) students scored 80% and above in aggregate and 51,000 students (9%) scored 90% and above-the highest ever in the history of CBSE. There are 554 CBSE schools which recorded an average aggregate of 80% and above.
School-wise analysis of the results revealed there are 46 schools where more than 50% students scored an aggregate of 90% or above. Of these, nine schools are from Delhi, eight from Chennai, six from Bangalore, two from Kolkata and one from Mumbai. Eleven schools are from Delhi-NCR in this category. Hyderabad is missing from this group. There are also 711 schools where more than 50% of students scored 80% and above.

Interestingly, good performance is not limited to schools from urban areas. The top three schools in the category in which 90% students scored 80% and above in aggregate are from areas like Mankahari in Satna, Madhya Pradesh, Jalgaon in Maharashtra and Balehonnur in Chickmagalur, Karnataka. While 100% of students from B V B Prism School, Mankahari, in Satna, Madhya Pradesh, and Kendriya Vidyalaya, Jalgaon, Maharashtra scored 80% and above, in Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Chickmagalur, 97.6% students scored 80% and above.

Source : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Only-one-NCR-school-in-CBSEs-top-eight/articleshow/40019912.cms