Parents protest in city, say private schools denying RTE admissions
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Parents said that if the admission process was not completed by Aug 31, the students would lose a year. Many parents also said they had removed their children from schools they were earlier enrolled at after they were selected under RTE.
"We applied for the admission as per the state govt's guidelines, and now when my child has been selected, the school is denying admission, stating that they will not give admission in nursery.
Why was the school allowed to be part of the RTE process if they are not following the govt's norms? Who is responsible for checking this? We are suffering for no fault of ours," said a parent, requesting anonymity.
Sanyukt Abhibhavak Sangh, a representative body of aggrieved parents in the state, said private schools were not following the state govt's directives, and despite complaints, action was not being taken.
According to data shared by the association, nearly 30,000 children selected under RTE have not been admitted, despite being chosen through a transparent lottery system. This year alone, 3.8 lakh applications were received for just 80,000 seats under the RTE quota.
"The state govt itself issued a lottery on April 9 for students selected under RTE, and on July 17, the education directorate also issued an order stating that all selected students must be given admissions.
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And yet, schools are denying admission. What is the fault of students or parents? The department cannot even get its own orders implemented," said Abhishek Jain Bittu, spokesperson of the association.
Officials of education department said a committee was formed in the last week of July to examine all complaints regarding RTE admissions. "We are working on every complaint that we receive, and mediations are being done with private schools so that the admission process can be completed at the earliest," said an official.
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