Panvel: The process for school admissions under the Right to Education (RTE) for the academic year 2020-21 will begin from June 24 in Panvel. The Panvel Panchayat education department has confirmed that they have received guidelines from the state primary education department.
The process had been stopped in March after the nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. However, even after three months, positive cases of coronavirus continue to be reported and parents are now getting anxious about their children’s school admission.
There are 2,450 seats in Panvel taluka that will be allotted to students whose family income is Rs. 3.5 lakh or below. Orphans, children with special needs, children of migrant and street workers are eligible for admission under the RTE Act.
Panvel MLA Prashant Thakur had written to the director of primary education on June 16, seeking resumption of the admission process.
A lottery for 25 per cent seats in schools under the RTE for the academic year 2020-21 was held on March 17, in which 1,00,920 students were selected, while 75,465 were on the waiting list. Panvel taluka has around 2,450 seats available, spread across 40 schools. But at that point, the process was put on hold, as the lockdown came into effect shortly after.
Now, the verification of students’ documents will be carried out at the schools where they have applied for admission. “Selected applications will get SMSs on their registered mobile numbers, and on the given date, they will go to the selected schools for document verification,” said an official from the Panvel Panchayat.
Last year, there was a huge rush at schools for this purpose. However, this year, because of coronavirus, maintaining social distance has become essential, so only selected students will be asked to come in batches to schools for the process.
