Children denied seats under RTE to move court

Fed up with the apparent inability of the school education department to provide any succour, parents of as many as 32 children who were denied admissions by various private schools in the City, under the 25 percent quota of the Right to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, are in the process of filling a petition in the Karnataka High Court.

The petition will be filed in the name of the children concerned and they are being assisted by the Free Legal Aid Clinic under the High Court Legal Services Committee.

On Monday, parents of some of the RTE seat aspirants were at the High Court to submit documents and complete the formalities in filing the petition. “The case has a number of merits that can be argued in the court. We are presently examining the law and will be drafting a writ petition and filing it in the court by Monday,” said Suman Hegde, advisor at the Free Legal Aid Clinic.

The petition will name around six schools namely St Xavier’s School, Electronic City; Vibgyor High School at Somasandra Palya, NS Palya and HSR Layout; Christ School, Sadduguntepalya; St Mira’s School, BTM Layout.

“We have been running from pillar to post for the past four to five months with little progress. Classes have already begun, but our children are at home waiting for justice. Authorities at the school education department, instead of solving our problem, advised us to approach the courts. We have no choice but to do this,” said Rajesh Kumar, a parent.

The 32 RTE seat aspirants had secured seats in the said schools under the 25 per cent quota when the department drew its list of seats under the RTE quota.

However, when students went to the schools concerned for admission, they were turned back with the institutions claiming minority status. All this right in the middle of the entire RTE procedure after the seats had been allotted. Moreover, a number of aspirants had not got admissions anywhere else, but only in the schools concerned.