Gujarat: Questions raised over 2nd round of RTE admissions

Experts working for the implementation of Right To Education (RTE) Act in the state of Gujarat have raised questions over the process of second round of admissions. Despite waiting for many months to start schooling, with pending RTE related cases in high court, all that students were expecting was a fair process after the high court's nod of starting second round of admissions. However, last week, the state government allotted seats to only 4642 students in second round despite over 35000 vacant seats in schools.

The state government this year had almost doubled up the total number of seats for RTE children in the state and had assured smooth admission process. For a total of 112000 seats, the state government had approved 125000 applications. However in the first round, only 80000 seats were allotted out of which nearly 72000 confirmed their admission. The announcement came as a shock to many as state government cited reasons like school preference to be a reason for less seat allotment.

After round 2, Sandeep Munjyasaraa, one of the petitioner in the case wrote to the directorate of primary education demanding clarity on the issue. Speaking with dna, he said, "Minimum 40,000 students are waiting for admission, how can state only allot 4642 students. Why did they not allow children to make changes in school preference if school the preferred school had gone full in terms of seats? In engineering and medical admissions also, students are given a chance to modify their choices in reshuffling."

In his letter, Sandeep has stated, "The second round of admission has been done without application of mind and as a result of it only 4642 children have been given admission out of around 45000 children who were eagerly waiting for the second round admission process. The grave mistake is done by your department and second round of admission has been proceeded without giving any opportunity to the children to modify their choice of schools. You are supposed to provide the opportunity regarding same so that children can modify the same based on the vacancy of the seats available in schools and as a result children maybe successful in getting admission. If the facts and circumstances are other than the mentioned in the complaint, then the same should be communicated in writing within a day of this complaint."

Further commenting on the issue, Ishu Gupta, a research associate at IIMA's RTE Resource centre said, "We cannot call it second round and the way it is carried out highlights the intentions of the implementors. This does not give people even a chance to edit their application form, correct theur mistakes and hence it is not a round."

Talking about second round, MI Joshi, Director, Primary Education had told dna that because most of the students want admission in the school of their choice, seats are lying vacant. We have vacant seats but no students."

TOUGH TIME

• MI Joshi, Director, Primary Education, had told DNA that because most of the students want admission in a school of their choice, seats are lying vacant in others. “We have vacant seats but no students,” he said.
   
• Ishu Gupta, a research associate at IIMA’s RTE Resource Centre said, “We cannot call it second round and the way it has been carried out, highlights the intentions of those who have implemented it.”