RTE amendment a boon for EWS kids

LUCKOW: After a long wait, Section 12(1) (c) of Right to Education (RTE) has finally been amended, after a new government order dated February 24 and March 3 came into effect.

According to the new GO, the ‘neighbourhood’ definition has been changed from ward to 1 km. This will enable children to take admission in private schools without worrying about the constraint of earlier neighbourhood definition of just 1km.

Another amendment says that if a child wants admission in pre-primary, it is of no consequence if a government school is present in the vicinity of his/her residence. This is a welcome move because now EWS and disadvantaged children can take admissions in pre-primary classes in any school, government or private.

For Class 1, in case the pupil teacher ratio (PTR defined as total number of students divided by total number of teachers in the school) of the neighborhood government school( if any), is greater than 30, then only will the child be eligible to apply in private schools under 25% reservation. “In our opinion, ideally PTR should not be binding but over 20-25% schools in UP have PTR above 30.We understand that the government is trying to implement RTE in a phased manner which is an improvisation over last year’s constraint of enrolment of 40 children in Class 1 in a government school,” said RTE crusader Samina Bano, chairman of Bharat Abhyudaya Foundation (BAF).

To ensure equitable access to quality education to every child irrespective of socio-economic differences, BAF, in partnership with the government, is engaged in capacity-building, providing technology assistance and conducting mass awareness campaigns across UP so that more and more people can benefit from this government scheme.