There were smiles on the faces of Mayeed and his wife Mayyabi — residents of Panambur — after hearing the announcement that their younger child Aaisha is one among the seven students selected to study in Bertrand Russel School in Baikampady under the Right to Education (RTE) quota. The announcement was made after the application and related income certificate were accepted by a panel comprising a representative of Education Department and school authorities.
“We are fortunate to be selected,” said Mr. Mayeed, who has a shop dealing with plastics. “The process adopted was fair and transparent. We are waiting for the call from the school authorities, who have to get approval of the selected list from the Block Education Officer,” Mayeed said.
Mayeed and his wife were among the many parents who took part in the seat selection exercise that was held in 17 schools of Mangalore North block on Tuesday. The exercise will be held in 18 schools of the block on Wednesday. For 475 seats available for pre-nursery and class 1 in 37 unaided schools, there were as many as 928 applicants in this block. As many as 612 applications were filed for 381 seats available in 32 unaided private schools in Mangalore South Block. The process was completed in the South Block on Monday.
More applications
Shree Vyasa Mahashri Vidyapeeta in Kilpady, on the outskirts of the city, was among the schools where applicants outnumbered the number of seats available. The school received 65 applications for 30 seats on offer. “First 22 seats were filled by applicants of the locality with low income and in reserved category. Draw of lots was held to select candidates for eight remaining seats,” said Principal Chandrika Bhandary. “Parents, who could not make it, were obviously sad. But we ensured that the process is fair and transparent,” said Ms. Bhandary, whose school has succeeded in filling all free seats in the past three years of RTE.
Education officials’ village trips and campaign help
Officials from Mangalore North Block had to hit the road to get more applications for the free seats reserved in unaided private schools for families from low income.
One of the areas the officials worked was in Bala village near Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemical Limited’s unit where the Delhi Public School is located. “Last year there were far fewer applications. On February 5, there were only a few applications that were submitted in the school,” said Block Education Officer C. Lokesh. Officials went around meeting panchayat members and villagers. “Between February 11 and 18 there were 63 applications for 23 seats,” Mr. Lokesh said. With a good number of applications, “we want most of schools to fill all the seats”, Mr. Lokesh said.
