Minority report: Sibal wants Muslim kids in private schools under EWS

HRD minister Kapil Sibal seems to have donned the role of a rescuer.

 

A day after he intervened and, apparently, convinced the Delhi Police to go the extra mile to ensure the safety of youngsters from the North-Eastern states, he urged Delhi education minister Arvinder Singh Lovely to improve the representation of Muslim children in the private schools of Delhi.

 

Following the meeting on Thursday, the Delhi government, according to sources, has agreed to change its definition of disadvantaged group to include minorities.

 

This would allow minorities, including Muslims, to seek admission to private schools under the economically weaker section or EWS quota according to the Right to Education (RTE) Act.

 

'We are definitely considering the inclusion of minorities in our definition of disadvantaged group. In fact, this has been on our mind for a while and the chief minister (Shiela Dikshit) recently chaired a meeting on improving the access to education for minorities in the Capital,' Lovely said.

 

'We are currently checking the legal position on this. If all goes as planned then this change will be part of our rules under the RTE Act which should be released in the two to three weeks. The biggest beneficiaries from the inclusion of minorities should be the Muslim community as they have a sizeable population in the city,' he added.

 

The issue of under representation of Muslim children in the Capital's unaided schools was raised in the Rajya Sabha on March 19. According to MPs, many private schools had barely admitted Muslim children to nursery classes this year. Following the uproar, National Commission for Minorities chief Wajahat Habibullah, who was present at the Thursday meeting, had written to Sibal on the issue.

 

'The (HRD) minister is from Delhi and he felt that he can help as far as Muslim children here are concerned. So he called for a meeting with the Delhi education minister and made suggestions,' a senior HRD ministry official said. Sibal's concern could also be traced to his political constituency - Chandni Chowk - which has a significant Muslim population.