Group of ministers to meet on Tuesday, discuss 25% reservation
A week after chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said that it would be compulsory for private schools reserve 25% of their seats for poor students from June, a group of ministers (GoM) will be meeting on Tuesday to work on the execution of the policy.
A week after chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said that it would be compulsory for private schools reserve 25% of their seats for poor students from June, a group of ministers (GoM) will be meeting on Tuesday to work on the execution of the policy.
The reservation is a provision of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, which the state government brought into force from 2010. It was cleared in the cabinet meeting last week
"We will finalise the definition of the economically weaker sections (EWS) and that of the socially backward. The implementation of the act will also be discussed in detail after which the state will issue a government notification," said Fauzia Khan, minister of state for education, who is part of the GoM.
The meeting will be chaired by education minister Rajendra Darda and will be attended by higher education minister Rajesh Tope, animal husbandry minister Nitin Raut and others.
"The education department has proposed Rs1 lakh annual family income as the limit to qualify as economically weak. But in last week's cabinet meeting there was a difference of opinion on bringing the amount down," Khan added. The education department had sent this to the law and judiciary department for their opinion.
The GoMs will also go through the implementation plan that the school education department has devised.
It calls for schools to put out notices and advertisements declaring the number of vacant seats in class 1 or pre-primary after which children from within a 1 km-radius can send applications which will then go through a lottery process.
The ministers will also deliberate on the reactions that have come from private schools.