The Right to Education Act has been implemented in the State to benefit students who are deserving and the government will ensure that it is not misused, said School Education Minister K.A. Sengottaiyan.
At a function to felicitate the Minister in the city, the CBSE Schools Management Association appealed to him to strengthen norms regarding admissions under the RTE Act, alleging that there were instances of a few parents using loopholes and securing admission for their children against the rules.
The association claimed that there were some agencies which charged parents a service fee to secure admissions in the CBSE schools and appealed to the education officials to verify applications before forwarding them to schools.
Promising to look into the issue, the Minister said that separate provisions for the socially backward and economically weaker sections were still under consideration and a decision would be taken soon.
Later, when reporters asked about the CBSE schools denying seats to students, Mr Sengottaiyan said that action would be taken if there are complaints.
The association also put forth an appeal to regulate the number of schools of boards such as CBSE, ICSE, IB and IGCSE, which were mushrooming in the State. “We are not against new schools coming up but have requested for due diligence before giving new institutions a ‘No-Objection certificate’ and allowing them to function. The institutions should be able to provide quality education for all students,” said Ashok P. Shankar, secretary, CBSE Schools Management Association. C.S. Manoharan, president of the association, S. Kannappan, Director of School Education and K. Srinivasan, Regional Officer, CBSE, also spoke at the event.
