Bill plans to ban school entry test

New Delhi, Dec. 14: Schools will be banned from holding admission tests or seeking “donations” from guardians if a bill to be tabled this week is passed without change.

The right to education bill commits the government to implementing the “neighbourhood schooling system” across India within three years, despite opposition to some provisions from the Planning Commission, officials have told The Telegraph.

The Free and Compulsory Education Bill will not just guarantee schooling to all children between 6 and 14, it is obliged to provide schooling within the block in which the student lives.

Educators have long been demanding neighbourhood schooling. But successive governments have never committed themselves to the concept, which requires a basic uniformity in regulations and standards that many private schools are opposed to.

The idea enshrined in the bill is loosely modelled on the British comprehensive school system that caters to nearly 90 per cent of secondary school students there.

Like the British system, the right to education bill bars schools from selecting students through a screening process that aims to gauge their aptitude. Schools — public, aided or private — can only admit students through a random lottery under the bill.

Any school that screens students for admission will be fined Rs 25,000 the first time and Rs 50,000 for subsequent violations.

Capitation fees are also banned. A school that asks guardians to pay any fee beyond that involving the child’s schooling can be fined up to 10 times the amount it had sought.

The Planning Commission opposed the bar on admission tests — a stand echoed by many private schools that want to continue screening their students.

The bill bans the practice of hiring parateachers — part-time teachers with either no training or lesser training than that required for full-time teachers in schools.

Several private schools, and many state governments, hire parateachers since they have to be paid less.

The bill strikes out several other “impediments” that officials argue deny aspiring students access to schooling, especially in rural India and among the poor, semi-literate and illiterate sections.

Under the bill, students will not need to provide a birth certificate to prove their age: the parents’ word will do. Also, a school cannot deny a student admission because he doesn’t have a transfer certificate.