Bengaluru: Delay in RTE admissions upsets school schedules

Bengaluru: The delay in the admissions under the Right to Education (RTE) Act has forced schools to reschedule their admission and summer vacations, which may also affect thousands of non-RTE category students, who are seeking school admissions.

Under RTE, non-minority private un-aided schools have to provide 25 per cent reservation to students from economically weaker sections.

According to the school managements, as per the original schedule the  state government should have started the notification process, including calendar of events, by December 2016. "The government is busy only issuing circulars related to technical issues. It is silent on the calendar of events. Last year by February, first round of admission process was almost done. But this year state government yet to issue calendar of events," said Srujesh Kumar, principal of a private school.

"We can't admit others till students are notified for RTE quota. There was a lot of confusion last year. This is forced us to postpone all the admission process. As a result we need to keep our school open even in the month of summer vacation creating problems for our staff," he said.

"State government can operate all its schools as per its whims and wishes. But even small change in our calendar of events is objected to by hundreds of parents. There is all possibility of losing few students if we are not able to start the general admission process on time. But no one is listening to our grievances," he said.

According to the sources in the Department of Public Instruction (DPI), the calendar of events will be released soon. "There were lot of issues to be resolved, including generation and upgradation of Aadhaar cards for applicants. So it is taking time," explained a DPI officer.