AAP govt proposes 10-year jail for schools screening kids, parents for nursery admissions

New Delhi: School authorities interviewing a child or his or her parents for admission to nursery classes could face imprisonment of up to 10 years, if Delhi government has its way.

With an aim to make existing rules strict to prevent arbitrariness of private schools in nursery admissions, the AAP government is planning to introduce the Delhi School Education (Amendment) Bill 2015.

The draft of the proposed Bill suggests that at an entry level in pre-primary and pre-school, where children are below the age of six, schools should neither interview a child nor his or her parents.

"Any person or school violating the admission rules should be punished with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than five years but which may extend up to 10 yrs.

"The punishment may vary provided that the court may, for any adequate and special reason to be recorded in writing, impose 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.

Another draft Bill being debated is on the regulation of collection of fee by unaided private schools in the national capital.

"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.

It has been proposed that the committee should consist of a retired High Court judge as its chairperson with director of education and a chartered accountant as its members.

The committee shall determine the fee leviable by an unaided private school taking into account various prescribed factors.

The term of office of the chairperson has been proposed for a period of three years from the date of his or her nomination.

According to the draft, the orders passed by the committee should be final and binding on the unaided private schools for a period of three academic years.

"At the end of the said period, the unaided private school would be at liberty to apply for revision," the draft says.

It also said that any school violating the rule should be directed to refund excess amount charged with 9 per cent interest within one month.

"The violators can be punished with an imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than three years but which may extend up to seven years and with a fine which may extend to Rs 5,000," it said.

The government had also suggested a District Committee in every Education District which shall be authorised to enter the premises of unaided private schools during working hours and inpsect any record, if it has reasons to believe that there has been any contravention of the provisions of the Act.