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HC asks officials to initiate admissions under RTE Act
A batch of 50 parents decided to hold a demonstration outside the office of deputy directorate of education, Camp, seeking concrete assurance.
The Bombay high court has instructed the deputy directorate of education to initiate admissions of students under the Right To Education (RTE) Act so that students’ futures are not at stake amidst the court battle.
A batch of 50 parents decided to hold a demonstration outside the office of deputy directorate of education, Camp, seeking concrete assurance.
“We are yet to get a written intimation from the court, but we have been told to hold the admissions for students under the RTE. It has been directed that the students should not suffer because of the ongoing case between the state government and the schools, which have denied them admissions due to the non-payment of reimbursements. We have been instructed to initiate the process, while the reimbursements will take place in due course of time,” said Sharad Gosavi, deputy director and primary education officer.
In Pune district, a total of 42,108 applications were made for 16,422 seats in 983 private and public schools. However, citing the lack of payment of reimbursements many schools, including Saraswati Bhuvan English School in Pimple Gurav, Priyadarshani School in Chinchwad and Phoenix World School in Kharadi, have denied admissions to students for the 25 per cent reserved seats under the RTE Act.
Only 6,499 students, who had been allotted schools in the first lottery results, received admissions out of a total of 10,228, in Pune district.
“This is surely a silver lining for us. The deputy director has assured that the said changes will take place and admissions will be initiated for these students after the written assurance comes to them on Thursday. We will be eagerly waiting for this to be complete so that the ailing parents can breathe a sigh of relief,” said Sharad Javadekar, convenor of Akhil Bharatiya Samajwadi Adhyapak Sabha and the founder of the RTE Action Committee.
Online RTE admissions had begun on February 10, and since then, the application filling round has undergone three extensions, finally concluding on March 11.
