No admission to pre-primary under RTE

MUMBAI: The Right to Education ( RTE) quota for pre- primary classes has been scrapped by the state government. Reason: It says it cannot afford to reimburse schools. The state made the decision public through a government resolution issued on Thursday.

With the new rule, students between three and six years of age from economically weaker sections will not get free education under the RTE Act. Several students who have already been admitted to RTE seats in the pre- primary sections of nonminority, unaided schools will have to let go of their seats, but they will be readmitted to the same schools when they reach Class 1, the GR stated.

So far schools were admitting RTE students to pre-primary, if it was their entry-point. But they were not being reimbursed for those seats by the government.

Hindustan Times had reported on April 30, that the government had decided to implement the RTE quota only from Class 1 onwards, following a Bombay HC directive stating they will have to reimburse schools for admitting students in the preprimary section.

“For the 2015- 16 academic year, many schools have admitted students in Class 1 and in nursery or junior KG in the 25% RTE quota. All these schools should admit children to Class 1 this year,” read the GR, issued by the state school education department. “Nursery and junior KG students will not have the right to take admission in the quota.”

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