Students from lower economic and disadvantaged backgrounds will be adversely affected as the number of seats under RTE quota may be reduced by half compared to previous years, following the High Court interim order on Tuesday. In 2015-16, the Department of Public Instruction had given seats under the quota in private schools at two levels — 49,429 for LKG and 50,638 for class 1.
With the interim order, private managements need not give seats under the quota for LKG for 2016-17.
The challenge before the department, however, is to find a method to ensure that school managements, who have pre-primary classes, increase their intake for class 1 if such a situation has to be avoided.
“Thousands of schools provided RTE quota at the LKG level. But if a school has 100 seats at the LKG level, the seats at class 1 level will also be 100. How will students under the quota be admitted under class 1 when the student strength will remain the same? ” RTE Students’ and Parents’ Association general secretary B.N. Yogananda said.
Department officials pointed out that the only way out is to ensure that the student strength for class 1 is enhanced so that students from RTE quota could be “accommodated”. However, another fear is if students under the quota are admitted to class 1, they may lose out on two years of learning.
One of the parents, whose child is now studying under the RTE quota in UKG in a private school, said, “Within one-and-half years, my child has learned to read and write. If a child has to be admitted to class 1, there are likely to miss out and be at a disadvantage compared to their peers.”
However, department officials said that Karnataka had recommended to the Ministry of Human Resource Development to ensure that the RTE Act was amended to cover pre-primary classes as well.
Anxious parents
Priya (name changed), whose child is admitted under the quota for LKG, feared that the school management may use this verdict to deny seat for UKG.
However, D. Shashi Kumar, General Secretary of Associated Managements’ of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka, said that none of their member schools would “displace” students already studying under the quota. School managements would use this verdict for 2016-17 admissions, he said.
Endless delay
Meanwhile, the department has not announced the calendar of events for 2016-17. Nagasimha G. Rao, convener of Child Rights Trust, said, “There has been a lot of confusion about this year’s admission and the Minister has said that the criteria may be tweaked. Last year, by this time, the calendar of events was announced.”
