The State government’s plans to change the Right to Education (RTE) Act rules to accommodate students only from below the poverty line (BPL) families and make “entry point” as class one seems to be fraught with several risks, warn experts.
According to officials in the State’s Education Department, the class one entry point would be virtually “un-implementable” and would shrink the number of seats available under the quota.
For instance, they point out that this year, under the RTE quota there were 53,532 seats in pre-primary classes and 57,797 seats in class one. But since schools which have entry point at pre-primary classes would already have a fixed number of students, they may not be able to accommodate RTE students in class one without an increase in seats.
“If a school has 100 students in LKG, the seats in class one is likely to be 100 as well. If students have to be admitted under the quota, it cannot be done unless the number of seats is increased,” a department official said.
Fake BPL cards
Nagasimha G. Rao, convener of the RTE Task Force, said if the government was serious about ensuring that the deserving poor get the seats, there was a need for the government to first act against families with fake BPL cards.
Another official pointed out that although the department’s current system gives preference for parents whose annual income is less than Rs. 1 lakh, seats under the quota do not get filled. “Unless the department gives more publicity at the grassroots level, the seats will remain vacant,” he said.
Govt. plans to change RTE Act rules to accommodate students only from BPL families
