Drop, don't extend it

Why the EWS quota in private schools isn't working

Let me begin with two incidents in two premium schools in Gurugram to illustrate my point. In one case, an expensive phone carried by one of the students — against school rules — went missing in a classroom of students in the 11-12-year age group. The parents asked the school principal to intervene and a search was conducted. The phone could not be traced but the needle of suspicion fell on two boys from the economically weaker section (EWS) quota who happened to be in the same class. The principal who narrated the story to me said that while the