Bengaluru: The Department of Public Instruction (DPI) and the prestigious National Public School (NPS), which has branches all over the city, are at loggerheads over the accommodation of the Right to Education (RTE) students for the last two years.
According to the Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (KSCPCR), which is the nodal agency for monitoring RTE admissions, all the issues pertaining to RTE admissions in the NPS branches have been resolved and there will not be any problem from the next academic year [2016-17]. Speaking to this newspaper, Mrs. Kripa Alva, Chairperson of the KSCPCR, told us that following her intervention, the NPS management has assured her that it will admit all students from the next academic year (2016-17) and there will be no confusion henceforth.
“This year after I assumed charge as the KSCPCR Chairperson, I received several complaints regarding the RTE admission process. A few complaints were related to the NPS, too. The school chairman Dr. K P Gopalkrishna agreed to admit all RTE students allotted to the school from the next academic year. So there will not be any issues regarding the admission process as all the students have been ensured justice.”
Bone of contention
According to sources in the DPI, in the academic year (2015-16), a few NPS schools in the city were not included on the RTE list as it held a minority status. “As per the Supreme Court judgement, the RTE free quota is not applicable to private unaided minority schools. The NPS is claiming it has a linguistic minority status. Still, the NPS, Rajajinagar were in the RTE list and a few students were allotted through an online lottery. But the school has allegedly denied admission to six of those students, which has still not been resolved,” said an officer.
