Right to Education Act states 25 per cent of seats should be reserved for students from economically weaker sections of society, but schools deny knowledge of this provision
Right to Education Act states 25 per cent of seats should be reserved for students from economically weaker sections of society, but schools deny knowledge of this provision
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One of the most revolutionary aspects of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 is the clause that directs all schools to reserve 25 per cent of seats at time of admission for weaker sections of society. This is a fact most city schools have conveniently ignored.
Even parents are not aware of this clause at the time of seeking admissions. In the fourth part of the series on illegal admissions and flouting norms of the RTE, MiD DAY has taken up the issue of reservations of seats for economically disadvantaged students.
A small survey of city schools carried out by MiD Day revealed that most schools haven't fulfilled these criteria, some even claimed to be unaware of it. For instance, according to sources, Kothrud's MIT English School does not even have ten per cent of seats reserved for the weaker and the disadvantaged groups. When confronted, Manisha Sablok, principal agreed that they do not follow any such rule mentioned in the RTE. "We give concessions and scholarships to students if the parents ask us. Otherwise we do not have specific reservations for students of the weaker sections. We get admission forms and randomly select students for the number of seats available. We do not pick students from the weaker economic sections," she explained.
Some schools said that they did not follow the rule, as they were not aware of any such provision. For example, at Camp's ST Vincent School, though scholarships are given to poor students, there are no checks in place to see if 20 per cent of primary school students are from the weaker sections.
Principal Father Mario Fernandes mentioned that though they do not follow any particular number of reservations, they have schemes and scholarships for students. He said, "We haven't received any kind of information about seat reservations nor has any law been imposed on us. Neither has any notification been sent from the government authorities so we do not follow it in particular."
Some principals also argued that though they were aware of this section of the act, they did not adhere to it as the definition is very vague and also the matter is subjudice according to them.
Nalini Sengupta, principal of Sus Road's Vidya Valley School, said that they awarded many seats to the weaker section but probably did not touch the 25 per cent mark.
"Firstly, I should tell you that private schools are fighting this clause in the court and that's why we are not following it at the moment as the matter is subjudice. Also, the parameters to decide the economically weaker sections and which schools should be involved in implementing it are unclear. We do have seats for the students belonging to the weaker sections but not to the tune of 25 per cent at present," she said.
Forum for Fairness in Education (FFE), an NGO, has sent notices to the education ministry, chief minister and education boards demanding all school admissions to be scrapped as schools have not followed the RTE act.
The schools haven't reserved 25 per cent seats for weaker sections or economically disadvantaged schools.
"We want the government to act against the private schools by next week or we are going to file a PIL in the court. All these admissions have taken place illegally," said Jayant Jain, president of FFE.
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