No more screening for school admission

From the next academic session all schools in the state will have to pay a hefty fine if they are found taking capitation fees from students or admitting students based on any kind of entrance test or examination. The School Education department has come out with a notification that by the provision of Right to Free Education Act,2011 the schools in the state can neither take any kind of capitation fees nor screen students for admission in the age group of 6 to 14 years.

In a notification issued by the department that has been put on its website the schools will have to pay a fine of Rs 25,000 if they are found to have been admitting students based on some kind of entrance test. If the schools are found indulging into the practice for the second time the fine will go up Rs 50,000. Besides,if any school is found to have charged any donation or capitation fees,it will have to pay a penalty up to ten times the capitation fees.

The notification says that in case a school gets more number of applicants than the number of vacancies it will have to decide on the basis of an open lottery. While the Right to Free and Compulsory Education to Children between 6-14 years was implemented in April 2010 across the country it could not be done in West Bengal because the state government had not come up with the notification regarding various provisions of RTE.