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Make admissions transparent: HC

Times of India, 20 December 2007

NEW DELHI: The High Court on Friday told the Directorate of Education (DoE) to issue a circular to all schools directing them to reveal the break-up of points scored by each child selected for admission. The HC said the information can be put on the school's notice board or website.

After hearing a public interest litigation filed by the Centre of Civil Society (CCS), the court asked the DoE to make sure that the schools make the admission criteria and the cut-offs for admission procedure available to public. "The DoE is directed to issue a direction to all the schools to display on their notice board, the criteria of admission and after the list of selected candidates is finalized, to publish the break up of the marks/points of each candidate,'' the court said.

Also, in a breather for parents who could not get any relief even after filing a complaint with the DoE, the court told the DoE to maintain transparency in attending to the complaints. It said the DoE should make available its decision and action taken on its websites so that the parents can check the status of their complaints. HC also said that DoE should address the complaints within a given time limit.

"We have got what we wanted. There were many schools in the city that do not put information about their admission procedure on internet. Now after the court order, schools will give all the information on nursery admission to parents,'' said R Baladevan, associate director, CCS. Many schools put detailed admission process only in the prospectus, which parents say, is available only at a hefty price.

Welcoming the decision, Rohit Kapoor, (name changed), a parent said, "DoE has been sitting dormant. I hope it will wake up now and take note of the situation. More number of parents may take their complaints to the DoE if they are convinced that the department will listen to them,'' Another parent, Preeti Grover (name changed) said, "At least schools will now know that they cannot go scot-free.''

Read the story in Times of India