Pune: While the admissions under Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act 2009 are suffering due to lethargic attitude of government and arrogance on part of the schools, the State Education Director (Primary) has released a list of 41 schools that would be excluded from the admission process in the second lottery of RTE.
The Mumbai High Court had issued an interim order stating that no coercive action can be taken against these 41 schools even if they deny RTE admissions until the court’s next hearing.
However, now Independent English Schools Association (IESA) has acquired a revised order from the Aurangabad bench of the High Court where it mentions that not just 41, but a total of 237 schools should come under the court’s order.
The schools, which are fighting over the issue of delayed reimbursement and have filed a writ petition in the court against the government, are a part of this list.
Sunil Chauhan, State Education Director (Primary), issued a directive stating that apart from these 41 schools, if any other school refuses admission to students over the issue of reimbursement, action will be taken against them.
Thus, despite the Education Department’s order to take off schools from RTE list to facilitate better admissions, even a higher number of the allotted schools will keep on refusing admissions to the students over the issue of reimbursement.
“There are so many schools that have suffered over the past five to six years due to lack of reimbursement and the government now wants to pretend to follow the court’s order by just excluding 41 schools and forcibly including the rest on the list, that have also boycotted RTE admissions right from the beginning of this year. The schools are being harassed every day and pressurised for admissions despite the court’s order. While now there are 237 schools on the list, in our next hearing on April 18, we will be submitting a list of even more schools,”
Jagruti Dharmadhikari, State President, IESA, said.
After several extended deadlines given for the admissions for the students who were allotted schools in the first lottery, the second lottery is finally to be announced across the State on April 18 and 19.
Speaking about the decision to exclude schools, a source from Education Department, Pune Zila Parishad, said that the admissions at these 41 schools have been frozen for the next round. “We will not allot these 41 schools to any student in the second lottery, as well as the following ones. However, the fate of the students, who have already been allotted these schools in the first lottery that was announced on March 12 and 13, will only be decided after the court’s order,” the source said.
Presently, Cambridge International Schools in Pune and Priyadarshani High School, Stepping Stone English School and Matruvidyalaya English School in Pimpri-Chinchwad are a part of the list, along with 15 schools in Jalna district, seven in Solapur district and the rest from different parts of the State.
