JOIN USSchools in a tizzy as govt tries to tackle RTE tangle
While the State government has gone ahead and taken up the challenge of tying up the numerous loose ends in the implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act in a short span of time, school managements still feel the glass is half empty.
They are unsure about how effectively they can execute the directions given to them. The government and the private schools seem to be stuck between the law and ground reality in the implementation of RTE from this year.
After the rules came into force, the government does not want to bypass the law and the schools are at sea as to what to do with the admissions done.
According to the estimate of D Shiv Kumar, General Secretary of the Private School Management Federation, not more than 35 per cent of the schools will be able to provide the full 25 per cent reservation this year.
The State has more than 10,000 private schools. Of these, about 3,500 schools may be able to provide the complete 25 per cent reservation from this academic year, says Kumar.
He analyses that 25 per cent of the schools have completed 100 per cent admissions by now. Of the remaining number, about 15 per cent will be able to provide five per cent seats this year for students from weaker sections and about 25 per cent will be able to provide seats up to 15 per cent, he says.
Schools that have completed the admissions without a single vacant seat now are mostly those that fall under the elite category, situated in the metropolitan areas. Schools that have a few seats available are those which are in lesser demand.
These schools generally leave admissions open for a longer time. Also, many schools in smaller towns will be able to accommodate students this year itself, Kumar adds.
Commissioner for Public Instruction, Tushar Girinath, said the government does not ‘acknowledge’ admissions that have been completed, as they have been done much earlier than the time table prescribed by the government. However, he admitted that the practical problem of students already enrolled in schools does remain.
“We can neither escape the law nor overlook practicalities. We will have to find a middleground and all of us are working towards this.”
Girinath felt that much of the pessimism about implementing the Act has come out of the discussion being Bangalore-centric. One needs to analyse the situation keeping in view the entire State, he added.