Lukewarm response in second round of RTE admissions in Indore

The education department has failed to garner a favourable response from parents in the second round of the admissions under the Right to Education Act (RTE), which was held in Indore on Friday.

The education department has failed to garner a favourable response from parents in the second round of the admissions under the Right to Education Act (RTE), which was held in Indore on Friday.

Department officials, who refused to reveal the number of application forms received in the second round, said it was too early to quote numbers as the data was scattered and it would take 10 days to release the numbers.

However, they said the department had received only a handful of applications from parents at different private schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and the Madhya Pradesh Board of Secondary Education (MPBSE).

Under the provision, 25% of the seats in private schools should be reserved for children belonging to economically weaker sections of the society.

However, only 3,122 seats (14.36%) were filled in the first round of the admissions in the district, which was held on February 3 this year.

Following the lukewarm response to the first round, the education department called for applications for admission to the remaining 18,611 seats.

Education department officials, on condition of anonymity, said the poor response to the second round of admissions was due to the failure of the district administration and the education department in creating awareness about the RTE among parents.

Even district education officer (DEO) Kaushal Kishore Shinde admitted that there were few takers for the vacant seats in the second round.

"More than 14,000 seats are expected to remain vacant after the second round of admission, but it is too early to quote numbers," he said.

This means that only about 4,000-odd seats are likely to have been filled in the second round of admissions.

Shinde said the poor response was due to the preference for CBSE-affiliated schools in urban areas. “RTE seats in many renowned CBSE schools have already been filled in the first round of admissions and now only lesser-known schools are left. Hopefully, the situation will change in the coming days,” he added.