Several parents in Uttar Pradesh capital Lucknow claim they are facing difficulties in resolving matters related to the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE) Act, 2009. The issues include the alleged denial of admission to eligible students and pending reimbursement.
As part of the RTE Act, all private schools must reserve 25% of the seats for children from economically weaker sections between the age-group of 6-14 (class 1 to 8) the annual income of whose families is below ₹3.5 lakh.
Apart from paying the fees of underprivileged children, the state government is also required to give ₹5,000 per year to each child for books, notebooks and school uniforms.
Five-year-old Jayant’s name appeared in the first list released under the RTE Act. When his mother Nidhi and he visited the allotted school, they were allegedly refused entry.
The mother-son duo claim to have visited the control room at Shiksha Bhavan over 10-12 times in the last few days and also lodged a complaint on the integrated grievance redressal system portal but their grievance remains to be addressed.
Nidhi is among several guardians who have been running from pillar to post every day to get their matters related to RTE resolved and children admitted in private schools.
{{/usCountry}}Nidhi is among several guardians who have been running from pillar to post every day to get their matters related to RTE resolved and children admitted in private schools.
{{/usCountry}}One Richa Singh (name changed), whose daughter will now be studying in class 8, claimed: “We received a payment of ₹5,000 only when my daughter was admitted to Class 1. I have been waiting for the reimbursement since then. I spent the first few weeks of April and July only running from office to school with the hope of getting reimbursement.”
Another parent shared she claimed the names of her children appeared in the lottery list. However, the school allegedly denied admission to them under the RTE as they were already studying in the school.
Two other women who wanted to get their children enrolled in a school in Mohanlalganj, alleged that the school has asked them to pay admission and examination fees.
Mohammad Ansar and Fatima Bano (names changed) alleged that when they visited the allotted school for their daughter’s admission under the RTE, the principal said more attention will be paid to their ward provided they pay entire tuition fee.
In another case, a parent claimed that the authorities of the school allotted to his son informed him that they would give admission only after the school conducted a survey.
“We are hearing the problems of all the guardians and trying to resolve them in every possible way. A school cannot deny admission under the RTE. They cannot ask for an exam or admission fee. We are looking into such complaints,” said Lucknow’s basic shiksha adhikari Ram Pravesh.
The BSA said the guardians were facing the above-mentioned issues in educational institutions, including City Montessori School, Lucknow Public School, Delhi Public School, Loyola International School, Seth AR Jaipuria and Seth MR Jaipuria Schools, Amity International School, Red Rose Public School, City International School and Sanskar Public School.
“The complaints related to reimbursement have also been checked. In some cases, bank accounts are required to be updated. The schools also do not have any right to conduct any survey and if they find anything fishy about any student, they can write it down to us,” he added.
“The control room has been made functional only for the convenience of the guardians,” he added. As per a basic education department official, in 2017 there were only 12,000 online admissions under the RTE Act which swelled to over 5 lakh students till 2024-25.