City schools are caught in a catch-22 situation. The state government’s latest announcement that 25% of the student strength will have to comprise those from weaker and disadvantaged sections from this year itself has caught them off guard.
Since most schools were expecting that the 25% provision will be implemented only from 2013, they did not keep aside seats for poor students. Many such schools claim that they will not be able to take in more than four to five students through this reservation this year.
But, the state education department has made it clear that it is going to be a hard taskmaster. Barring unaided minority ones, all schools will have to prove that they have complied with the provisions. If they fail to do so, they will violate the Supreme Court judgment of April 12, which upheld the constitutional validity of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009.
Sanjay Deshmukh, special project director, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, said, “Schools themselves had gone to the SC against the reservation. They should have kept aside seats in case the SC gave a nod to the quota. They will have to make a provision from this year.”
Raj Grover, education consultant and advisor to the Kangaroo Kids and Billabong International High Schools, said it was too late in the day to force schools to make such reservation. “ we completed admissions for pre-schools and Class I before March. We do not have vacant seats, but there could be few transfer cases or last minute cancellations. If inquiries come through from such students and if seats are available, we will give them admission.”
Internationals schools under the IGCSE or IB boards finished their admission process in November-December and CBSE and ICSE schools completed theirs in February-March. Even top SSC schools wrapped up the process by March.
Some schools are mulling over plan B — adding extra seats per class. But, this move will lead to crammed classrooms and will affect the quality of teaching, says Indu Mathur, principal of Apeejay School, Nerul.
