The Education Department has instructed district-level committees across the State to conduct one more round of verification process to eliminate ineligible candidates, who have secured admissions to schools under the Right to Education Act.
The committees have already conducted the verification process and prepared a list of eligible candidates. However, the Education Department wants to further scrutinise the applications to make the selection process foolproof. After realising that there were possibilities of a some candidates on the eligibility list for reasons like more than one ward having the same pin code, the Education Department has instructed officials to ensure that only eligible candidates get seats under the RTE quota.
The department felt the need for this in the wake of recent orders passed by the High Court of Karnataka after a few candidates secured admissions under the RTE quota in a ward other than their ward of residence.
The Commissioner for Public Instruction has sent a circular to all the DDPIs in the State instructing them to conduct the post-selection verification process.
The Commissioner had stated in the circular that the verification of all RTE applications was made using the databases of Aadhaar, Electors’ Photo ID Cards (EPIC) and Nada Kacheri.
However, he further stated, as these databases are not tailor-made for RTE purposes, it is imperative to have a post-selection verification process to make the selection foolproof.
Students from disadvantaged groups, those who had submitted EPIC without pin codes as address proof, whose names were there in the first eligibility list and classified as ineligible the second time but considered to be included in lottery process, and those who applied in schools in wards other than their ward of residence would be subjected for post-selection verification.