Schools give frivolous reasons for denying RTE admissions

The Right to Education (RTE) task force has received 30 complaints from parents so far since admissions under the Act started on January 5, on schools denying admission to children under the RTE provision.

The parents have alleged that the schools they approached to admit their children gave lame excuses and denied admissions.

A resident of Banaswadi said she wanted to admit her four-year-old son to a prestigious school under the 25 per cent reservation. Despite having all the valid documents, the school refused to consider her son for admission. “The school first said they did not admit students for LKG or UKG. Later, when I enquired about admissions to class one, they told me they admitted students only to LKG,” she said.

Kumar of Basaveshwaranagar said he approached nearly six schools before finally getting admission for his daughter. “Two schools – one in my locality and another in Rajajinagar – claimed that they admitted students only to class one, though they had LKG and UKG sections,” he said.

The other schools found various excuses for not admitting students. One school claimed they were a minority institution, though they did not show any proof of the same. Another school, located one km from Kumar’s house, claimed it did not fall in Kumar’s ward limits.

Nagasimha Rao, a member of the task force, said: “It seems these schools are making a deliberate attempt to confuse parents so that they finally end up not admitting the children.”

A circular issued by Nanjappa, consultant on RTE, Department of Public Instruction, has clarified that admissions under RTE can be made from the kindergarten levels, too, besides class one.