Pvt. schools uncertain over filling 25% of seats

No clarity yet on status of RTE seats

The clamour for seats in sought-after private schools has grown louder this admission season, but managements are at a loss as they are yet to get clarity on the status of seats reserved under the RTE quota.

In December 2018, the State government gave its approval to amend the rules on the admission procedure under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act. Students from weaker sections and disadvantaged communities can now only avail a reserved seat in a private school if there are no government schools in their neighbourhood.

However, the government is yet to amend the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Rules 2012, and the Department of Public Instruction has not yet notified the schedule for the seat-allotment process under the reservation quota.

This has lead to confusion among private schools who have already started their admission process. For now, they have kept aside 25% of their seats for the reservation quota and are filling the rest.

However, if the new amended rules come into effect in the 2019-20 academic year — as announced — then most private managements feel that none of them will be filled this year.

“Most neighbourhoods have government schools and this essentially means that children will not be eligible to get a seat under the 25% reservation quota in a majority of private schools. In this case, the department should inform us so that we can open up these seats to the general public,” said D. Shashi Kumar, general secretary of the Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka.

P.M. Sathyanarayana, who runs the Residency International English Primary School, agreed on this point. “I have a total of 65 seats in LKG. From January till May, we have decided to do admissions for 48 seats, which is 75% of the total class strength. If the RTE rules are tweaked as proposed, 17 of our seats will not be filled,” he said.

Private school managements also argued that it was not financially viable to leave so many seats vacant. “For the 2017-18 academic year, the government paid us ₹4.8 lakh for students admitted under the RTE reservation quota. This money is crucial for us as it helps us meet our expenses. We cannot afford to leave these seats unfilled,” Mr. Sathyanarayana added.

Most of the top schools in the city have already completed admissions for 75% of their seats. Parents scrambling to get their children placed in these schools also feel that the government should allow private schools to fill the reserved seats as early as possible. “Many of the top schools are informing us that the admission process is closed. If the 25% RTE seats are open to the general category, it would, on an average, help at least around 100 students get admission in each of the top schools,” said Manjunath M., who is looking for admission for his daughter for class one.

Parents from economically weaker sections, who were hoping to send their children to private schools, feel they have been treated unfairly. B.N. Yogananda, general secretary of the RTE Students and Parents’ Association, said they were planning to approach the court to ensure that the 25% reservation in private schools continues. “They cannot deny parents from lower socio-economic backgrounds the opportunity to send their kids to private schools,” he said.