Government issues new guidelines, asks educational institutions to give admissions on first-come, first-served basis, or through a lottery system.
The days of burning midnight oil to prepare for your child’s admission are over.
The ministry of human resource development (MHRD) has formulated guidelines for admission to schools following the enactment of Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act 2009.
The guidelines prohibit screening of children and parents, while schools have been asked to adopt a random selection process.
“Schools have to adopt an admission procedure which is non-discriminatory, rational and transparent. Schools should not subject children and parents to admission tests and interviews,” they say.
An MHRD official indicated that schools could give admissions on first-come, first-served basis, or through a lottery system, but interviewing parents and children was a strict ‘no’.
The official clarified that institutions run by minority groups will also have to comply with the guidelines if section 2(n) of RTE Act applies to them.
However, madrassas and vedic pathshalas serving religious and linguistic minorities are out of the purview of the act.
The guidelines were formulated after MHRD received representations from several unaided and aided schools seeking clarification on the procedure to be followed for admissions.
“Admission tests and interviews are generally a tool for profiling and eliminating children, and, therefore, screening to assess a child’s intelligence should be prohibited,” they say.
Accordingly, admissions to class I (or pre-primary class, as the case may be) under section 12(1)(c) of RTE Act in unaided and specified category schools shall be granted through a system of random selection of applications received from children belonging to disadvantaged groups and weaker sections for filling a pre-determined number of seats (not less than 25% of the class strength).
For the remaining 75% of seats, each school should formulate its own policy. As per the guidelines, this policy should include criteria for categorisation of applicants in terms of objectives of the school on a rational and just basis. There shall be no profiling of children based on parental educational qualifications. The policy should be placed by the school in the public domain, given wide publicity and explicitly mentioned in the prospectus. There shall be no testing and interviews of children/parents in or outside the categories and selection should be random.
Section 13(1) of RTE Act provides that while admitting a child, no school or person shall subject him/her or his/her parents to any screening procedure.
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