Denied RTE admission, students suffer in fight between govt & schools

As private schools and the state government bicker about the pending reimbursements owed by the latter, students seeking admission under the Right to Education (RTE) quota seem to be caught in the crossfire. Many private schools are refusing to allot RTE admissions, though authorities of the education department are yet to acknowledge this fact. School managements, on the other hand, have openly admitted that they are turning away parents without giving admissions. Admission figures, available on the RTE website, show that while 10,228 students were given allotments in the first draw of lottery seats under the RTE quota, only 236 admissions have been confirmed so far. The draw of lots took place on March 12.

Parents of students from the economically weaker section (EWS) of society, who are eligible for RTE quota admissions, say several schools have refused admission to their children, citing some excuse or the other. Shashikant Gaikwad, whose daughter has been given an allotment in Class I at a private international school in Wagholi, said, “When I visited the school, they asked me to come back after 4-5 days. They said they have not been given any reimbursement from the government for the admissions they granted in previous years….this year, they have not been giving admissions. They said some court case was going on and the situation would be clear in four to five days, after which I should check with them again. But the last date to confirm the admission is March 24….”.

Another parent, requesting anonymity, said his daughter was allotted a seat for Class I in a school in Kharadi. However, the school management told him that queries about RTE admission were entertained only on Mondays and Fridays, and turned him back. “They were also saying something about a case… I am hopeful that on Friday, they will confirm my admission. I have visited the school twice since I received the allotment message,” he said.

After the online draw of lottery, parents were sent an SMS about the allotments and asked to confirm the seats by March 24. They were also told that the first school allotted to a child will be the final one, and if parents fail to secure admission to the allotted school within the deadline, the admission will stand cancelled and the student will no longer be able to participate in further RTE rounds.

This year, many private school managements have approached the Bombay High Court, alleging that the government has failed to reimburse them for RTE admissions given in previous years. While the state government has claimed that the pending amount is not more than Rs 150 crore and it will be cleared soon, schools are claiming the figure is at least six times higher. When defiant school managements refused to register for the RTE process, the state government had to take the data of intake capacity of schools from previous years and fill it, for the online process.

School managements have made it clear than even if allotments are given, no fresh RTE admissions would take place till the pending reimbursements are cleared. Now, school managements are brazenly accepting that they have been refusing RTE admissions. “We have about 200 seats under RTE. Allotments have been given but we are not confirming them. Some 20-25 parents, who were given allotments, went to the local MLA to complain after we refused admissions. We have already explained our position to them and we feel bad for the parents. But we believe the chaos was triggered because of the ‘auto registration’ of school data, done by the government. Had the government not forcibly registered our school, the parents would not have seen it as an option in the online system, and instead selected another school, which was willingly part of the process,” said Rajendra Singh, CEO of PCMC’s Priyadarshini school.

Sainath Shridhar, member of the Independent English School Association, said the High Court had granted them interim relief, valid until March 28. The court had directed that no action would be taken against schools refusing RTE admissions till the pendency of the case, said Shridhar. “Even I am refusing admissions of RTE allotments because we have not registered for it in the first place and we are within our legal rights to do so,” he said. The state education department, meanwhile, had a different take on the issue.

Sharad Gosavi, deputy director of education (primary), said they have not received any complaints so far of refusals by schools. “The number of admissions may be low since parents do not immediately go to the school to confirm admissions. Also, if they don’t get schools of their choice, they may not take the admission,” he said.

News Source (Indian Express)