Pune: The state, and with it the Pune district, is struggling to fill up RTE seats and recent statistics said that out of the 1,05,242 seats available for admissions across 9,217 schools in Maharashtra, only 60,320 students have been admitted and 44,922 seats lay vacant. The Right to Education (RTE) Act aims to provide free and compulsory education to children from economically weaker sections. The process has been facing challenges in Maharashtra and more so in academic year 2024-25.
Activists said the state govt's initial decision to exempt private schools from the RTE process created confusion for guardians. The Bombay high court and, later, the Supreme Court quashed the decision. Till then, many parents either did not apply or did not update their application forms.
Education department officials said another problem that led to vacant seats was a tendency among parents to apply for a single renowned school, leaving seats vacant in others. Member of a parents union Mukund Kirdat said that many parents from EWS did not apply for admission of their wards due to the govt’s Feb notification exempting private schools from giving 25% free seats under the RTE Act. “These parents either secured admissions for their children by paying fees in the school or opted for another by the time the order was stayed and the govt re-started the RTE process in private schools,” he said.
Kirdat further said that even for seats that did get allotted there were problems since the document verification process had made strict. “Earlier, there was flexibility, but even a spelling mistake on any document leads to rejection now. We had a parent from a slum whose address on his Aadhaar card was of his village.
He had applied for it to be changed and submitted a copy of the said application. Yet his child was denied admission,” he added. Parent Sunny T told TOI he was relying on RTE admissions for his daughter since they came from a low-income background.
He said that initially, there were no private schools listed and though he filled out the form, he wasn’t sure of enrolling her. “My daughter was allotted a spot in our preferred school when the list was updated later to include private schools in our area.” State primary education director Sharad Gosavi told TOI that there was a delay in admissions due to the court case.
“Some parents may have confirmed admissions for their wards in other schools and did not claim their seats through RTE. Additionally, we have around four more rounds to go. Last year, we had 84,000 admissions under the Act and have already hit 60,000 this year.
I am sure the numbers will increase in the coming rounds.” He said that with regard to strict document checking, they had found some parents faking addresses to get a school of their choice..
