Some schools in Mangalore have received one application for seats reserved for weaker sections following the implementation of the Right to Education Act (RTE), principals told The Hindu .
The principal (on condition on anonymity) of one English-medium private school said the school received one application for the 20 seats that her school had for students coming under the weaker section category, following the RTE. The parent was unable to produce the required documents. There was no identity paper or income certificate, she said.
She said the intended beneficiaries of the seats reserved in schools following Right to Education Act (RTE) were not benefiting from the Act. According to her, parents with income above Rs. 3 lakh a year were getting “bogus certificates” to apply for seats. “It should be a needy person…the concept is going wrong,” she said and added: “It's happening in every school, in Udupi district interiors.”
Vincent D'Costa, Principal, Rotary School, said that of the 46 seats that were available for the weaker section category, the school received 41 applications and all were taken. According to him, it was the school that informed people that the seats were reserved for students from weaker sections. He said: “People were not interested and we told them; they were not aware (that they could apply to schools for admission of their children)…it was a last minute decision.”
He said there were lots of problems. There were many students who join school, which starts with LKG, and the same students continue to UKG. However, the Education Department officials had told him that the students should be taken to class one, he said.
Another principal of a private English-medium school said that the school had received one application and the student had been admitted. She said she had attended a meeting on the issue organised by the Block Education Officers (BEO) on the subject of RTE and most heads of schools had accepted its implementation despite the initial resistance.
“Hiccups will be there...but it will get going,” she said.
The headmistress of a government school said she had received no application for seats coming in the RTE quota.The school had only students from the minority communities.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Director of Public Instruction (DDPI) Moses Jayashekhar told The Hindu that the number of applications received by government schools (and the number of students admitted) in the category reserved for students of weaker sections in Dakshina Kannada, following the implementation of RTE, would be compiled by Thursday.
