Bengaluru: Majority of private schools in the city have already completed the admissions for both the kindergarten and first standard for 2017-18. But thousands of underprivileged children, who are eligible under the Right To Education seats, are waiting for allotments of seats by the DPII. The RTE Act specifies that private schools have to set aside 25 per cent of their seats to these children.
The parents are worried with the delay and said that the Department of Public Instruction is taking time, though the last date for submitting the applications was April 15. “First the last date for submitting the applications was March 31. Later it was extended till April 15 because of glitches in the system. We don’t know whether to admit our children to some local school or wait for the RTE allotments,” said Mr Sharanappa Balegara, a parent whose daughter has applied for Class I.
Mr Balegara may not get a seat for his daughter at a local school too, as most of the schools have completed admissions and are not willing to wait till the RTE allotments are announced. “School managements have warned us that in case our child gets an RTE seat, they will not return the donation and admission amounts. Block Education Officers too are not helpful as they told us that schools have the powers to admit children before RTE seats are allotted. The delay by the DPI has caused all these problems,” said Ms Sharanamma, a resident of Peenya.
