Despite HC stay on state govt amendment: RTE aspirants up against another wall, private schools say ‘no seats, admissions over’

In February, the state government brought in an amendment which exempted private schools from admitting students whose homes were in the vicinity of a government or aided school. This clause exempted virtually all private schools, especially in urban areas and was thus met with intense opposition from parents and EWS sections of civil society.

On May 8, however, Bombay High Court declared the clause ultra vires and put a stay on it until a decision is reached on the matter. The next hearing is scheduled for June 12.

Thereupon, in accordance with the court’s stay order, the School Education department of Maharashtra released a circular this week announcing that application forms will be opened afresh starting Friday, May 17. Now there will be 1,02,434 seats available in 9,138 schools across the state.

By this time, however, the school registration process was already over and the students had begun filling application forms. Almost 70,000 applications had already been submitted for over 9 lakh seats across government, aided and private schools.

Jagruti Dharmadhikari, vice-president of Maharashtra Rajya Shikshan Sanstha Mahamandal said, “We will not be able to take RTE admissions because most schools have already filled all seats for the coming academic session. Additionally, the court has only put a stay on the exemption clause, and not cancelled it altogether. We are hoping the final decision will be in our favour and if not, we will take it up in the Supreme Court.”

The vice president of Independent English Schools Association, Rajendra Chorge, also could not confirm that schools that are part of this association would take RTE admissions this year. He said, “We have yet to be paid more than Rs 2,000 crore for the past several years by the government as fees for RTE students. It is not possible for private schools to maintain quality or to even survive, if this continues. We are yet to decide on a final plan of action but will surely take this matter to higher courts if needed.”

Meanwhile, parents who had been discouraged and had not applied for RTE earlier are looking forward to the golden opportunity for their children. Rupali Jadhav, an artist and social activist who lives in Kashewadi has been trying to spread awareness among her neighbours about this. Ever since they found out that private English medium schools will again be eligible for RTE admissions, they have been trying to keep abreast of all information about the matter.

Jadhav said, “People here do not have much familiarity with computers, online forms and so on but we are in touch with two volunteers from Samata Centre, an NGO, to assist families in this process. I have made a WhatsApp group of families in the neighbourhood, whose children are eligible, and I am updating them on all developments. This stay order by the court has come as a relief for all of us.”

However, RTE activists fear that several children may get left out of the process due to lack of information. RTE activist Mukund Kirdat said, “The news that previous forms stand cancelled, and that forms need to be filled afresh might not reach everyone. Also, many parents just go to internet cafes or E-Sewa kendras and pay around Rs 300 to fill the form, so they will have to do that again.”

Apart from this, RTE admissions which usually begin in January have been so delayed this year that students who may even finally get admissions will have a considerable course to cover, he said.