The Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam has disputed the State Government’s figures on admissions under the Right to Education Act and said that the figures do not reveal the true picture.
In a statement, the party’s State youth wing secretary V. Eswaran said that in the revised estimates for 2016-17, the government informed the Assembly that thus far 3.17 lakh students were admitted to private schools under RTE.
The School Education Department by joining hands with private schools was dishing out wrong figures by showing wealthy, affordable students who had already gained admissions in schools as those who had benefitted out of the RTE admissions.
By following the Maharashtra and Delhi model, the Tamil Nadu Government should follow a transparent RTE admission model by going online. By refusing to do so, the government was siding with the private matriculation schools.
The Delhi Government had brought within its control the admission under RTE to CBSE schools as well. But the Tamil Nadu Government seemed to be disinterested in all this. The Tamil Nadu Government should change its stand to ensure that the money spent on students from the underprivileged sections was well spent.
A few MDMK members staged a protest at the office of the Chief Education Officer on Raja Street demanding replies to queries they had sought under the Right to Information Act. Mr. Eswaran said that the office had continuously been dodging their queries.
