WHEN CHILDREN in the dusty Santosh Nagar neighbourhood are studying in school, five-year-old Kannan Swami is playing at home and watching videos on mobile phones. The boy who was allotted a seat in a private school under the Right to Education (RTE) Act in 2015, waits impatiently for his admission while his mother runs from pillar to post to beat a patriarchal government rule. Kannan, who is being brought up by his 32-year-old mother Gauri, was denied admission because his mother could not produce her estranged husband’s income certificate. Having separated nearly five years ago but not legally divorced, Gauri’s dilemma, like that of many other single mothers, is that the government does not accept the caste/income certificate of the mother unless she is legally divorced. Bringing the case to the consumer forum did not help her, and Gauri will soon file a writ petition in the Bombay High Court. A few blocks away from Gauri’s house, Kiran’s daughter faces a similar dilemma since her husband refused to take any responsibility of the child. The girl was refused as Kiran did not have her father’s caste certificate. The women, who have been fighting their cases since 2015, are now exhausted. “We have been running from one government office to another in the past two years but to no effect. Meanwhile, our children remain out of school,” said Gauri. With a contractual job in a private bank and a salary of Rs 9,000 a month, Gauri, barely able to make ends meet, is determined to send her son to a “reputed English-medium” private school. “I want my son to get the best education. If he can’t get admission under the RTE quota, I will take the regular admission route. It will mean exorbitant expenses but I don’t want to compromise on my child’s education,” said Gauri. “I don’t know yet how I will manage the finances but I will work something out,” she said. Meanwhile, Kannan is being home tutored to make up for the time lost. Even as Kannan’s chances under RTE hinge on a court case, many children have already missed their chance simply because they weren’t allotted seats and are now above the age limit for application. Gufran Qazi from Qureshi Nagar slum in Kurla East is one such case. His last chance for admission to Class 1 was in 2017 but he was not allotted a seat in the five lotteries held recently. By next year, he will have crossed the age limit for applying under RTE. Gufran has three siblings and his father Zubaid works at a scrap dealer’s shop, earning between Rs 10,000 and Rs 12,000 a month. “Gufran’s two older brothers are enrolled in a government school where the fee per child comes to around Rs 3,500 annually. We were hoping that Gufran would make it to a good school under RTE and get free education,” said Sajida, his mother. Now, a municipal school is the only option for him, said Sajida, disappointed by the turn of events. “While the RTE Act is a blessing for parents with limited means, the system has failed us,” she said. The RTE Act, which came into force in 2009, states that education is a fundamental right and stipulates free and compulsory education for children between six and 14 years of age. In a bid to encourage inclusive education, section 12 (1) (c) of the Act mandates that at least 25 per cent of seats at the entry level in non-minority private schools will be reserved for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. The government is responsible for reimbursing the fees of these children to private schools, with a maximum limit of the per-child expenditure in public schools.However, over the past seven years, implementation of the Act has emerged as the biggest challenge for authorities. After facing problems in the offline admission process, in 2014 the Maharashtra government decided to conduct the RTE quota admissions in Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad and south Mumbai through an online portal. Help centres were set up to help parents apply online. The allotment was to be done through a central lottery system. In 2015, the process was made online in Nashik, Aurangabad, Kolhapur, Nagpur, Amravati, Latur as well as the Mumbai metropolitan region comprising Thane, Kalyan Dombivli, Bhiwandi-Nizampur, Ulhasnagar, Mira-Bhayander and Navi Mumbai. The same year, the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad in association with Central Square Foundation, in a report on the implementation of RTE, slammed the Maharashtra government. “The only medium to apply for admission through 25 per cent quota is through the online system. This process requires them (parents/applicants) to have a computer, internet, printer and scanner, which is too much to expect from underprivileged families whose annual income is less than Rs 1 lakh. Though the government has set up help centres to help them, they are so few in number that people have to travel up to 8 kilometres to reach these centres,” read the report. The first two years of the online process saw several teething problems ranging from technical glitches, delays, parents finding it difficult to apply through the online process, schools rejecting children on false pretexts and parents producing fake certificates. Three years later, the admission process is still marred by problems even as it has become smoother. On one hand, several seats go vacant every year as they don’t find any takers and on the other, thousands of applicants don’t get admissions. This year, seven out of 10 children who applied for admission to primary and pre-primary sections could not get admission and over 4,300 seats did not get any students. In 2016, while 9,664 seats were available for 6,409 eligible applicants, only 2,498 children were admitted. Over 7,000 seats were vacant at the end of third allotment round. For the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) which conducts admissions in Mumbai, the problem lies with the skewed ratio between demand and the availability of seats. BMC education officer Mahesh Palkar said that a lot of the vacancies were caused because some schools were more in demand than others. Every year, around 30 schools don’t get any applications while some schools get 10 times more applications than the number of seats available. “Parents want to send their children to only a few schools where they believe the quality of education is good. The ratio of applications and the schools available for allotment is skewed,” said Palkar. Another problem, Palkar said, is that parents don’t turn up for admissions despite being allotted seats in schools. Some also seek a change in the school allotted to their child through the lottery. When asked how the government planned to bridge the gap, state education secretary Nand Kumar said, “The plan is to improve the quality of education at all schools so there is similar demand for all schools.” He hinted at a policy to introduce punitive measures against schools where quality of education is substandard, but did not divulge details. Educationists and activists have, however, blamed the government’s apathy towards the implementation for the problems plaguing the admission process. RTE activist Sudhir Paranjape, who is a member of Anudanit Shiksha Bachao Samiti, said the lottery model was one of the reasons for the failure of implementation of the Act. “The lottery model is a fraud. While some children are allotted multiple seats, others don’t get a single seat. It does not guarantee education to all applicants, contrary to the mandate of the Act,” he said, adding that the government lacked the political intent to implement the Act better. Paranjape suggested that officials map the number of seats available to the number of applications received, based on the location and requirement of the applicant. “The mapping can be done for all applicants who are left at the end of the lottery, too. These children can then be allotted the remaining seats as many seats go vacant in the RTE quota every year,” he said. That government schools and minority schools are exempt from the quota after a Supreme Court ruling has also been questioned by several activists. “Most reputed schools in the city are religious or linguistic minorities and are exempt from the compulsion of reserving seats,” said Paranjape. This year, only 334 schools were eligible for RTE admissions. Amid such difficulties and failures, several children in the city are left behind. “I am disappointed in the system,” said Kasiya Shaikh from Kurla whose son couldn’t get an admission despite three attempts. Echoing the parents’ views, Paranjape said, “The government does not assign importance to the goal of the Act of providing education to all children.”
