1.01L applications for RTE quota rejected

Seat allotment through lottery from March 11

Of the 3.89 lakh application forms received for seats under the 25 per cent quota of the RTE Act in the State, as many as 1.01 lakh have been rejected primarily due to double or multiple application forms by a single candidate.

    
This leaves as many as 2.87 lakh application forms that will be eligible for seat allotment through the online lottery process, scheduled to begin after March 11, according to officials from the Department of Public Instruction (DPI). 

Multiple forms

“A number of students have submitted more than one application form. These constitute most of the one lakh forms that have been rejected during the verification process. In such cases, only the first form will be accepted while the rest will be rejected,” said an official from the department.

Those forms that are found to be incomplete or without proper documents will be scrutinised at the time of admission, said the official in view of the department’s lenient view towards students trying to avail of the provision.

“A number of forms have not at all been verified by the schools and sent directly to the BEOs,” said the official.

The process of verification of forms has been going on after February 21, which was the last date for receiving application forms. 

A provisional list of eligible candidates for seat allotments under the quota may be published on Thursday (tomorrow), if not within a few days and objections invited soon after, said the official. 

A lot of anxiety and apprehension persists among parents with regard to the online lottery system of seat allotments. Sunil Kumar, a parent who wants to get his son admitted to LKG at a school in Rajajinagar, said, “A lot of parents like me want to know how exactly the online allotment process works. No doubt it may be transparent, it should be done in the presence of parents, department officials and school authorities. At least, we should get some information on how it works. For the past two years, the lottery system was done manually through drawing of lots in the presence of parents.”

Demo by NIC

A demo of the functioning of the online lottery system was conducted on Wednesday, where National Informatics Centre (NIC) officials showed how the system works to department officials.

“NIC officials claimed that the seat allotment for the entire State could be done within a matter of a few hours through this system,” said the department official. 

R M Suresh, a parent who went to the Department of Public Instruction office on Wednesday where the demo was being conducted, was not allowed to view the process.
“I was told by an official that more information would be given in a week.”