Maharashtra: Parents Face Hurdles In RTE Admissions

Many of the parents from the disadvantaged and economically weaker sections in the state are having a hard time admitting their children to private schools under the Right to Education (RTE) Act.

The Movement for Peace and Justice (MPJ), which had successfully petitioned against the state government exempting certain private schools from having to reserve seats for RTE admissions, has complained that the valid documents submitted by the parents are being rejected. In a letter to the state director of education, the organisation has alleged that some of the schools are outrightly denying admissions, citing reasons such as full occupancy of seats, even when vacancies exist.

The state has resumed the RTE admission process after the Bombay High Court (HC) last month ruled against the state’s decision to exempt those private schools that are in the vicinity of government-run and aided schools from admitting marginalised students on 25% of their seats. However, only 54,690 out of 93,009 parents who were allotted seats in schools across the state have confirmed their admissions.

According to MPJ Maharashtra president Muhammad Siraj, one of the main reasons for the poor confirmation rate is the slow pace of the document verification carried out by taluka-level scrutiny committees.

“There are long queues of parents awaiting verification, causing immense frustration. In many places, the committees refused to validate the documents on various pretexts. There is also a delay in acquiring income certificates from tehsildar offices,” he said.

MPJ, in its letter, has also alleged that many schools are refusing to admit the students, claiming that their seats are already filled. Siraj said that it’s a violation of the HC order, which clearly said that even if the schools have already allotted the seats meant for 25% admissions to other students before the verdict, their total seats can be increased to accommodate the learners from marginalised sections.

“These issues collectively paint a grim picture of the challenges faced by vulnerable sections of society in accessing their right to education. We believe that the root cause of these problems lies in a lackadaisical attitude towards the implementation of the RTE Act,” reads the letter submitted by the organisation.

While the school education department extended the deadline for securing the seats from July 31 to August 5, the organisation is demanding that it should be extended even further to allow the remaining applicants to confirm their admissions. It has also demanded that the government streamline the verification process, enhance the server capacity and issue clear guidelines to schools.

Highlights

Under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 25% of Class 1 and Pre-primary seats in private non-minority schools are reserved for children from economically weaker and disadvantaged sections. These students get education free of cost, while the government reimburses their tuition fees to schools.

However, in February, the state government issued a notification changing its RTE Rules to waive this requirement for the schools in the vicinity of government-run institutes. The decision was challenged in the High Court by various petitioners.

HC, in July, quashed the notification, saying that it was “ultra vires the RTE Act 2009 and Article 21-A of the Constitution of India and, accordingly, the impugned proviso is declared to be void”. Article 21-A declares that the state shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of six to fourteen years.