‘Fill 91,000 seats under RTE or face ban’
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Even as the department of public instruction (DPI) gets ready to officially start the admission process under the Right to Education (RTE) Act from Thursday, the government made it clear on Wednesday that it would brook no defiance and schools that did not admit students from disadvantaged groups and weaker sections of society to 25 per cent of their seats — 91,000 seats, would be derecognised.
DPI commissioner, Tushar Girinath revealed that all schools had been notified and the block list of students would be released on Thursday. “With about 91,000 seats available in private, unaided, non-minority schools, the RTE should be in place and running by the second week of June,” he said, adding, “There are a large number of institutions that claim to be too elite for this, but what needs to be looked into is how many students they cater to.”
A senior officer involved in the implementation of RTE said if a school denied admission to students under RTE the DPI would have no option but to derecognise it. “In the case of non-state syllabus schools, we will cancel the NoC issued to them and write to the boards concerned. We are firm about our decision to implement RTE in every school,” he added, assuring that the authorities were,however, open to negotiation over the fee reimbursement. “One of the concerns of the private unaided schools is that the `11, 848 fixed by the state government as reimbursement for these 25 per cent seats is very little compared to the fee paid by the rest of the students. But we are open to negotiation on this ,” he added.
Karnataka State Private School’s Management Federation (KSPSMF) organising secretary, D.Shashikumar said the government had issued the notification on RTE very late and was now threatening legal action. “If it was serious, it should have come out with the notification a long time ago,” he added.
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