When admission season in most private schools is coming to a close, the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) has decided to ‘tweak’ the age limit for class 1 students. Those who were ineligible to apply because they were a few days younger than the limit, will now be allowed to do so. However, this decision will leave students, who applied under RTE quota and missed the bus by a few days, in the lurch as admissions for seats under the RTE quota are done.
Pramod M., a parent who works as office assistant in a private company who was unable to apply for RTE quota seat for the 2017-18 admissions as his son was underage by seven days, said: “This is extremely unfair for disadvantaged parents.” With the revised rules, he will now be eligible to apply at a private school or admit his child in a government school, or he can wait for a year and apply under RTE again.
Hundreds of parents like Pramod have missed out on RTE seats as their children were under the age limit by only a few days.
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In an order issued on Thursday, the department relaxed five months for the 2017-18 academic year for class 1 students in government, aided and unaided institutes. While earlier it was from 5 years 10 months to 6 years 10 months, the new entry point is 5 years 5 months. The age limit for LKG students remains the same: 3 years 10 months to 4 years 10 months. Several schools too have opposed the “last minute” change. Mansoor Ali Khan, board member, Delhi Public Group of schools said they had already denied admissions to children between 5 years 5 months and 5 years 10 months. “There is no rationale for tweaking the age limit to 5 years 5 months. They should have done it before admissions commenced,” he said.
Senior officials of the department said the change was made after receiving representations from the Karnataka State Primary School Teachers’ Association, who requested for a relaxation in age limit after which private school managements association demanded the same. This relaxation will only hold for this admission season. “The limit will revert to the original 5 years 10 months to 6 years 10 months from the next academic year,” a senior official pointed out adding that students who were not eligible for RTE quota seats.