Online process begins for RTE admissions in private schools in Indore

The first-ever online process for admission to private schools under the Right to Education (RTE) quota began in Madhya Pradesh’s industrial city Indore on Thursday, Rajya Shiksha Kendra commissioner Deepti Gaur Mukherjee said.

The first-ever online process for admission to private schools under the Right to Education (RTE) quota began in Madhya Pradesh’s industrial city Indore on Thursday, Rajya Shiksha Kendra commissioner Deepti Gaur Mukherjee said.

The state government decided to go online to keep the admission process transparent.(HT photo)

The RTE Act guarantees the right to full-time elementary education to all and mandates a minimum of 25% free seats for the children belonging to the weaker sections in all private unaided primary schools. However, there had been reports of irregularities during the manual system earlier.

Keeping that in mind, the government decided to go online to keep the admission process transparent. The school education department has tied up with the National Informatics Centre to provide the RTE admission portal.

Indore district project coordinator AS Rathore said the system has been eased for the parents who are not internet-savvy. They can get the admission form from the portal downloaded, fill it up manually and submit it to the nearby private school or block resource coordinator (BRC). The latter can then upload the form online.

Parents can submit forms till June 30. They will get time from June 24 to July 4 to make changes or corrections. After that the department will conduct scrutiny of the forms and announce the names following a lottery on July 7. On the basis of draws, parents can admit their kids in schools between July 8 and July 16.

He said, “The parents, who are net-savvy, can fill the form online with the required information and their school preference. They can upload the form themselves with an online receipt.”

This year, as many as 998 private schools out total 1057 recognised schools are going to participate in the RTE online process against 1,390 schools affiliated to the CBSE and the state board across Indore district previous year. In 2015, the education department managed to fill only 4,912 (23.27 percent) seats out of 21,105 seats available under the RTE quota in Indore district after three round of admission from the month of February to July first week that year.

Officials attribute the situation to the lack of awareness about the law in rural areas, besides parents’ preference for CBSE schools over the state board-affiliated institutions.