Bengaluru: A day after the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) conducted a lottery to allot 1.29 lakh free seats in private schools across the state under Right to Education (RTE), majority of students and parents were confused on Saturday.
With DPI offices closed on Saturday for Basava Jayanti and parents having nowhere to go to seek clarification, wild rumours were doing the rounds over the social media alleging large scale malpractices in the seat allotment process. Though the DPI started the online lottery system on Friday evening, parents received SMSs on the status of their applications and the schools allotted to their children only on Saturday morning.
In Bengaluru, as the number of applications for RTE seats are nearly the double the number of seats available, many parents were anxious about the future of their children. “I had applied for five schools, but my child has not got admission in any of them. I am in a fix as admission in all these nearby schools are over. I am left with the option of admitting my child either in a government school or a BBMP school,” said Ms Saraswati Murthy, a resident of Chandra Layout.
Many parents alleged that their children have been allocated seats in schools that were listed as their last choice. “My child has been allocated a seat in an Urdu school. I selected the school as the fifth choice by mistake, assuming that our child would get the first or second choice of schools,” said Mr Rathakala Ameen, a daily wage worker from Basavanagudi.
But most of the parents complained that their wards did not get the seats at all. “The government should have ensured that all schools in the city share RTE seats. Minority schools are excluded from the RTE quota. Also, many schools in the city have got exemption in the name of linguistic and religious minority etc. The government is responsible for this fiasco,” said Mr Lokesh Kambar, another parent.
‘Why allotments on Public holiday?’
On Saturday, the day after RTE seats were allocated through an online lottery system, the Department of Public Instruction offices were closed across the state as it was Basava Jayanti. The helplines too were not working, sending the parents into a tizzy.
“Ideally, the government should have announced the lottery results on a day when the government is working and not on a public holiday. Parents now have to wait till Tuesday, as Monday too is a holiday because of Labour Day, to get answers to their queries,” said an officer from the education department.
“Parents used the social media, but they were further confused as there is lot of wrong information floating on the web,” he said.
Parents could not read SMSes: Expert
Mr Nagasimha G. Rao of the RTE Task Force said that they received a lot of
complaints on Saturday. “Many parents could not read the contents of the SMSes they received. The state government should have ensured that at least the helplines worked on Saturday,” he said.
