Almost two years have passed since the Right to Education (RTE) Act came into effect, but not all of its clauses are being followed by schools in the state.
"Other than a handful of schools, most are violating RTE rules. Even today, students and parents are undergoing rounds of screening during admission (illegal under the RTE Act). We still receive complaints from parents about their wards being denied admission or asked to leave due to various reasons. The state government needs to take cognizance of these problems," said Jayant Jain, president, Forum for Fairness in Education. The forum has filed various PILs in the Bombay high court against rigid school managements.
A rule that some schools object to is the one making it mandatory for every school to set aside 25% of seats for students from economically weaker sections of society. "This issue is still pending in the Supreme Court, but there is no stay on the matter. Why then are schools using this as an excuse to not entertain applications from students?" Jain said.
Educationists claim that lack of awareness about RTE guidelines among parents and students gives school managements the upper hand during admissions. An RTI application by a Delhi-based activist last year showed that child rights protection commissions of many states receive only a handful of complaints on RTE violations. The situation is better in Maharashtra.
"We have received several complaints about problems (faced by parents and students) during admissions and about schools not giving admission to differently-abled children," said Farida Lambey, a member of the Maharashtra State Commission for Protection of Child Rights. "We have held several hearings on these issues and also solved a few."
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