According To Act 25% Students Must Be Admitted
Seven years after the Right to Education (RTE) Act came into force, only 21.8% of the lawful number of students to be admitted to class I in private schools under RTE across the state has been achieved. RTE came into force on April 1, 2010 but government officials say it is still being implemented in a phased manner.
According to data provided by the state government, some 4 lakh students are admitted to class I in private schools every year. According to RTE, 25% i.e.1 lakh students must be admitted to class I, under RTE. Against this, in the four years from 2013 to 2016, only 87,875 students have been admitted to class I under the RTE quota. This is just 21.8% of the actual target for such subsidised admissions.Even for the upcoming academic year, the state education department has targeted 60,000 RTE admissions, which is 60% of the actual target. Commenting on this, M I Joshi, in-charge director, primary education, said, “We are implementing RTE in a phased manner according to the directives of the state government. If there are more applications, we will revise our targets from the current 60,000 admissions for the coming year.“
The last date for filing applications for admissions under RTE is March 15. While RTE was implemented in 2010, there were no admissions till 2013.Well-placed sources in the state government said that the budget for implementation of RTE is not enough and therefore, it is being implemented in a phased manner.
Commenting on this, Sukh dev Patel, an educationist, said, “Even though RTE came into force in 2010, it was not implemented in the state with immediate effect. The basis of the targets for admissions decided by the government are questionable.“
“Going by the government’s target of admitting 60,000 students under RTE this year, there would be 2.40 lakh students studying in class I in private schools. However, according to government figures it self, around 4 lakh students are admitted to class I in private schools every year. Out of this, 25% quota for RTE makes 1 lakh students,“ he said, ad ding that the rule of law cannot be implemented in a phased manner.
Source – Times of India – Ahmedabad – 23rd February 2017
