Mumbai : Several non-government organisations (NGOs) and parents on Monday condemned the State government’s decision to keep pre-primary education out of ambit of the Right To Education Act, as several thousand under privileged students’ admission in kindergarten (KG) has been cancelled.
Earlier on last Thursday (April 30), the State government had come up with a Government Resolution (GR) in which the government decided to put the pre-primary education out of jurisdiction of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 also popularly known as Right to Education (RTE).
The state had justified that intake capacity of the school is different at pre-primary (KG) and in first standard. So it is difficult to implement the RTE in the state. The state has decided to give 25 per cent admission to under privileged students only in the standard I under RTE.
After the GR, estimated ten thousands under privileged students in Mumbai region who got admissions under RTE in private schools will be thrown out of schools as their parents cannot afford to pay the fees.
Sudhir Paranjape of Anudanit Shiksha Bachao Samiti said “The state is playing with the education of under privileged students. From last three months, RTE process was going on in the state. Parents made applications and went for the lottery system. After the lottery results they had approached respective schools and got their children admitted in schools. Today, state GR says that pre-primary is not under RTE. We condemn it.”
Nilofer Khan, resident of Malad whose son got admission in a private convent school, said, “I received a phone call from the school saying that my son’s admission under RTE stand cancelled. If we want to continue admission we have to pay fees of a few thousand rupees which we cannot afford.”
Paranjape said, “We are planning to protest against the State government’s decision. If that does not work, then we will approach to the court.”
Principal Secretary of Maharashtra school education Nand Kumar said, “We have followed all the directions of RTE 2009 in the GR. If anyone wants to challenge it in the court, one can.”
