Right to Education round one: 1.1 lakh allotted seats

Bengaluru: With the first round underway for the online lottery system for Right to Education (RTE) seats at schools in the state, more than 1.1 lakh applicants out of 2.3 lakh have been allotted seats.

According to the records available from the education department, 1,11,548 seats were allotted towards seats under the RTE quota in aided and unaided schools across the state.

A total of 1,52,117 seats are considered under the same, with 79,685 of them made available for students taking admission for Lower Kindergarten (LKG).

The first priority is given to applicants under the special category. 

Officials shared the fact that more than half of the applications in this category (51.32%), however, submitted fake certificates and documents.

Children who are transgenders, migrants, orphans, hailing from families who have faced farmer suicides and those specially abled are included in this category.

“With numerous yojanas made available for students under the special category, we felt that this was taken for granted in many instances, adding to the burden of the work. 

However, those found fake were rejected,” said the official.

No takers for 716 schools
As many as 393 aided and 323 unaided schools in the state failed to attract applications under the RTE quota. 

Reading into the matter, the department of public instruction inferred that these schools either lacked sufficient teachers or proper infrastructure.

Plaint against fees
Starting next academic year, private schools in the state will have to follow the new fee structure. Principal Secretary of Primary and Secondary Education Department Shalini Rajneesh clarified that a fresh notification in this regard would be issued soon after the code of conduct for state elections is withdrawn.

Parents can raise their concerns on such issues to the District Education Regulatory Authority (DERA), she said. 

At the same time, the officials have also clarified that elections would not have any impact on any activity related to reopening schools for the upcoming academic year.

Books, uniforms
Stating that the existing RTE rules are being implemented at present, Rajneesh said that CBSE and ICSE schools will have to provide uniforms and textbooks to students admitted under the quota. State syllabus textbooks, however, will be provided by the state government.