Complying with the Right to Education (RTE) Act,all private schools in Himachal will have to give admission to students of economically weaker sections (EWS) on 25 per cent seats at elementary level (6 to 14 years) from the coming academic session of 2011-12. The draft rules and regulations for implementing the provision have already been prepared and are expected to come up for approval in the next cabinet meeting (on February 15) , said Education Secretary Srikant Baldi. The identification of deserving children and defining the EWS is one of the crucial areas to be addressed in the draft rules. The mode of payment of education expenses of such children by the state government to private schools has also been incorporated in it. The state has 15,500 government elementary schools and 2,000 private schools,including those affiliated to ICSE,CBSE and Himachal Pradesh Board of School Education. Trends of school enrollment in Himachal,traced during the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER)-2010 prepared by NGO Pratham,show that enrollment of students in the first class of schooling (at five years of age) in private schools is already picking up and is 35.7 per cent,as compared to 28.2 in government schools. Headmaster of Bishop Cotton School R C Robinson said: I have already taken up the matter with my schools management and their reply is awaited. The BCS is already running two separate wings for differently-abled children The Learning Centre and for EWS The Non-Formal Center. The Non-Formal Center enrolls 35 children from migrant labourers families every year and grooms them for admission to regular schools. A few NGOs,too,have stared to build pressure on the government to implement this provision of the RTE Act by increasing the budget for children. According to a report of the Himachal Pradesh Voluntary Health Association,40 per cent of population in Himachal is in age group of 0-18 years and the budget for them is only 14.14 percent.
