Mumbai: With a sharp drop in the number of parents from disadvantaged sections applying for admission to the reserved seats in private schools, the state government has extended the deadline till May 10. The state government had earlier given a 15-day window from April 16-30 to sign up for centralised admissions.
So far, only 62,000 parents have registered on the admission portal compared to 3.64 lakh applications last year. Most districts are yet to cross the 1,000 mark, while only nearly 2,000 parents from Mumbai are in the fray.
The poor response appears to be due to the state government’s decision to exclude private schools in the vicinity of government-supported schools. Most parents logging in to the admission portal cannot select private schools of their choice, with only government and aided schools available.
Under the Right To Education (RTE) Act, 25% of the seats at the entry point (Class 1) or pre-primary sections in private unaided schools, except for those run by religious and linguistic minorities, are reserved for children from economically weaker and disadvantaged sections. These students get education free of cost, while the government reimburses their tuition fees to schools.
However, earlier this year, the government changed the rules to exempt private, unaided schools within a 1km radius of the government and aided schools from this requirement. Under the revised norms, the parents will first be allotted seats in government and aided schools in their vicinity, with private unaided schools being available only if no government-supported seats are available.
Multiple petitions have been filed at Bombay High Court (HC) against the new rules. On Monday, a division bench of Justice AS Chandurkar and Justice Jitendra Jain decided to club a writ petition filed by the Movement for Peace and Justice and Welfare and 16 parents with a public interest litigation, with the issue up for hearing on May 8.
