Applications for admission to schools under the Right to Education Act are set to be handed out from Thursday even as education department officials are doing the rounds to ascertain the number of seats available in unaided non-minority institutions, as well as confirm minority status. This is the first step in the admission process under the RTE Act, which says that all schools must notify the BEO (Block Education Officer) of the number of seats available in kindergarten or Class 1, as the case may be.
However, it is still vacation time, so most schools are closed. “You will not find anybody in the school except the help”, says Mrs Nalini Ponappa, principal, Vidya Niketan School, who is not expecting an official visit at the school on Thursday. Meanwhile, minority status remains a grey area, as schools are still awaiting their certification. “My institution is definitely in the minority class. We satisfy all the requirements, but we still haven’t been certified”, says the principal of a reputed school in the city. She confirms that officials did come to the school on Wednesday to get details of the number of seats available. “Nobody seems sure whether the admissions are for kindergarten or Class 1”, she says.
In the next step in the process the BEO will calculate 25% of available seats in each school and notify parents, teachers and the community by displaying the numbers in prominent places. The BEO will also fix a calendar of events for admission to schools under the quota, mentioning the date when applications will be issued, date for submission of applications along with supporting documents, and the time-frame within which schools should conduct the selection process. The cycle will begin only from January 2013 for the academic year 2013-2014. Finally, the list of selected students in each school must be approved by the BEO.