Hardik detained for protesting against RTE admission

Ahmedabad Police on Friday detained Hardik Patel and Alpesh Thakor after they threatened to lock down the office of the District Education Officer (DEO) for non-admission of children from economically weaker sections in private schools under Right to Education.

Both, Hardik and Alpesh, earlier visited an upmarket private school with a couple of children to seek clarification about their admission. Being CBSE affiliated, the school authorities claimed that the kids were aged below six years, they could not be admitted to Class 1.

“The Central government during UPA rule brought a law of Right to Education. We went to the school and they gave us in writing that as per RTE they would give admission to children in Senior KG. It is illegal as there is provision for admission in Class 1 and not Senior KG. So we went to DEO, who just passed the buck,” Hardik Patel said.

He was joined by Alpesh and the duo threatened to lock down the DEO office if a solution to the problem was not found. “The CBSE law is that children aged 6 years can be admitted to Class 1. But state law suggests that a 5-year-old child should be given admission in Class 1. The school said the case is before the court but what about the education of children if the court takes six months to deliver its judgment,” Alpesh said.

Awaiting admission

He alleged that over 30,000 students from across the state were yet to be admitted to schools under RTE. Both, Hardik and Alpesh, were later released.

Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said that almost 90% of the eligible students had got admission in schools under RTE and the remaining cases would be sorted out soon. In all, Gujarat received over 1.25 lakh applications for admissions under RTE this academic year.