Class of Confusion

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan has not not come up with an alternative process either. We had always discouraged tests. Based on applications submitted we call parents and talk to them and then admit students, said Anindita Chaterjee.

Most schools said they havent worked out how to admit 25 per cent students from the economically weaker sections; some say the matter has been challenged in court and are waiting for the outcome.

Government schools have done away with admission tests from this year for higher classes. This year admission to to classes I,III and V is being done through a lottery, said Dipak Das,general secretary of the West Bengal Government School Teachers Association.

LUCKNOW

As in Delhi,Uttar Pradesh schools have been given the freedom to decide their admission procedure,and each is interpreting the RTE Act its own way. The state government says it will work out the way to implement the Act only after written instructions from the Centre. No guidelines have been issued. For this year,schools have the freedom to decide their admission procedure, said DC Kanaujia,director,Basic Education,UP.

In private schools,the procedures being followed vary between common observation of kids in an activity room,first come,first served and informal interactions with the child and the parents. What they do agree on is they will not be able to implement RTE guidelines fully.

Javed Khan,joint director and principal of Lucknow Public Collegiate,says,Not to screen children at all would be impractical. We will hold informal interviews with children and parents,based on basic knowledge and IQ. We will see if we can experiment with new procedures but it will not be possible to follow the guidelines 100 per cent even if they are issued.

Purnima Shah,principal of Rani Laxmi Bai School,which has several branches in Lucknow,says,We interact with the parents and the child before admission but the main criteria is first come,first served.

Delhi Public School in Indira Nagar observes the child in the activity room before selection. We give them paper,crayons and other items. Parents are made to sit at the back of the room, said Renu Makkar,principal.

CHANDIGARH

Guidelines on how the RTE Act is to be implemented have not arrived,so every school in Chandigarh has decided its own criteria for admitting children,and when. Some have begun admitting nursery students while others say they will wait till January and start once they get instructions from the Chandigarh Administration.

Normally we start admissions by this time,but this year due to a new circular each week from the government pertaining to admissions,we are waiting for guidelines, said St Johns School principal Kavita Dass.

Some schools say they dont test or interview children or parents; others say they meet parents. There is no formal test,no screening either. But school authorities meet them in groups of 10-15, said DPS principal Reema Dewan.

There is no uniform pattern for admission to Chandigarh schools, said Dr Rakesh Sachdeva,the Principal of DAV,Sector 15,which admits 25 kids every year at nursery level. We usually receive twice as many applications as the number of seats and before admission we hold an informal sitting with the parents. She said her school has kept a quota for the economical weaker sections.

Mumbai

Maharashtra has not issued guidelines for implementing the RTE Act and many schools in Mumbai have already admitted nursery students as they always have,each according to its own norms,with no changes on account of the RTE Act. With no regulatory body in place and no admission policy framed,many schools continue to put toddlers and their parents through interviews,with some of them allegedly charging between Rs 6,000 and Rs 12 lakh.

Jayant Jain,president of the Forum for Fairness in Education,said,As there is no regulatory body,the government has no control over pre-primary schools. A school in South Mumbai has a rule that parents must secure admission as soon as their ward turns one. Some even ask for the parents PAN card numbers in admission forms.

Swati Popat Vats,president of Podar Education Network and Podar Jumbo Kids,said. We still follow the guidelines made some 18 years ago by the Ram Joshi Committee. We give admissions on a first-come,first-served basis and never interview students or their parents.

Vidya Niketan School in Dombivali puts parents through a written aptitude test and deny admission if the scores are low. Principal Vivek Pandit said such tests make the admission process transparent.

Ranchi

With schools having agreed to reserve seats for the economically weaker sections,the debate here is whether nursery applicants should be screened or selected through a draw of lots. Most schools have agreed to draw lots,but this has upset some parents. The merit of the child should be tested. If it is not,we will approach court, said Surendra Kishore,president of the Jharkhand Backward Castes Sangh.

DPS Ranchi principal S Mohanty said draw of lots is the fairer option. Seats are few and the number of applicants is expected to be high. Cambrian School principal Manpreet Kaur said they would first verify if applicants really belong to the EWS category.

For seats not reserved,however,many schools have said they hold tests and interview parents. There are no RTE-specific guidelines for residential schools. We have started giving out forms but are not sure how admission will be carried out, said Randhir Singh,principal of Cambridge Residential School.

Bhubaneshwar

Orissa in September brought out the Orissa Right of Children to free and Compulsory Education Rule,2010,so that it can implement the RTE Act. The school and mass education department has also brought out a circular prohibiting admission tests for children and parents and prescribed fines for violation.

Yet,officials said they would brief all schools on the guidelines before they start cracking the whip. We will discuss the violations with the schools concerned and give them a chance, said the official.

Prakash,PRO of DAV Public School at Chandrasekharpur,Bhubaneswar,said the RTE Act needs rectification. We are undecided about admission tests next March. Last academic session we got 400-odd applications for LKG. Besides,we are not sure whether to take the parents word as proof of a childs age as the Act says. We are discussing this with the government.

KIIT International School principal Sanjay Suar said,We wont hold any admission tests for children or their parents.