BMC to take over RTE admissions
To ensure the proper implementation of the Right To Education Act, where private schools have to reserve 25 per cent of their seats for the underprivileged children, the government has asked the civic body’s education department to conduct and oversee the admissions from next year.
Officials say that the RTE is already being implemented, but as schools have started, it is not being pursued diligently by the BMC. It will, however, be implemented fully from the next academic year.
According to an officer from the BMC education department, there had been many complaints of schools rejecting applications of economically backward families or on the grounds that the school had a minority status. “This has been the case with most of the private schools in the city and hence, the school education ministry has decided to hand over the entire process of conducting and overseeing admissions under the reservation quota seats to the civic body,” said an official from the education minister’s office.
Mirza Baig, education officer, BMC, said that apart from the underprivileged students, the BMC would also be responsible for conducting admissions for category students to private schools. “We will be accepting applications for admissions to private schools in a zonal format. In the event of the number of applications exceeding the 25 per cent reservation limit, then a lottery will be held among the applicants,” said Mr Baig.
The government has also empowered the civic body to act against schools refusing to accommodate students from economically backward and caste categories.
“The idea behind the Act is to ensure that the have-nots have equal opportunity to study in environments conducive to quality education. Most private schools have gotten land and other expenses either subsidised or waived off in the name of education, but they recover huge amounts as fees from the students. Hence, the Act is in the right direction to have a parity,” said J.M. Abhyankar, former director, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan.
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