E-Paper
RTE admissions deadline receives a third extension, till April 13
The date has been extended owing to the flurry of technical errors in the forms against the backdrop of schools agitating against these admissions.
Once again the date for admissions of students in the 25 per cent category under the Right to Education (RTE) Act has been extended to April 13, by the education department. This is the third time that the date has been extended owing to the flurry of technical errors in the forms against the backdrop of schools agitating against these admissions.
The extended date was announced by Sharad Gosavi, deputy director of education, primary, Maharashtra, on Tuesday, citing this to be another chance for the parents to rectify the errors. However, the recent protests by parents in Pune, against the denied admissions to four students, is yet to be resolved.
“Admissions of two students out of the four have been confirmed but, a letter has been sent to the school in question to give admission to the third student,” said Gosavi. The fourth student has to re-apply to confirm the admission, he added.
“Sadly, the fourth student will have to re-apply and wait for the call in the lottery once again. The parents of the student could not confirm the admission, despite the school eventually agreeing to provide admission, because of a technical error on the government’s part. While they reside in Kothrud, the student was assigned a school in Wadgaon Sheri, violating the one to three km norm under RTE,” said Sharad Javadekar, convenor of Akhil Bharatiya Samajwadi Adhyapak Sabha and the founder of the RTE Action Committee, who had been leading the parents’ protest.
In order to help students stuck in such cases, the education department made the extension. “Now, all parents will be able to re-apply with fresh forms,” said Gosavi.
This year, the extension was made from March 24 to April 4, the first time. It was then extended to April 10 to resolve the matter of protesting schools that denied admissions citing payment dues of reimbursements. With a total of 41 schools petitioning against this at the Bombay high court, the deadline was further pushed to April 13.
“A total of 56,238 students have been given admissions across the state in the first lottery of RTE admissions. Of these, 36,899 have joined while 1,759 have been denied admissions. Students whose admissions have been stuck in the midst of this court battle will be completed after this is resolved. We will be deciding whether to extend the date further to April 16, after Friday,” said Gosavi.
The admission of several students are still pending as only 6,634 students of 10,284 have been given admission.
