School allocation through RTE begins
On Wednesday, an online lottery process was initiated for allotting seats in schools which received applications in excess to the 25% seats that the institution is supposed to allot to the economically backward. However, the process for admissions under Right to Education (RTE) Act is in its last leg.
For admission in rest of the schools the online lottery system will not be followed for allocation. Parents of registered students whose applications were confirmed will get an SMS notification of the school they have been allotted.
Of the 317 schools in Mumbai registered for providing RTE admissions, 185 schools got applications in excess of their capacity. The school registrations took place between March 16 to 30.Gokuldham school in Goregaon got the maximum number of applications at 296 followed by Lakshdham school in Goregaon at 285 applications.
At the same time, there are 68 schools in the city which did not receive any application for admission under the RTE. “It only means that parents did not prefer these schools for some reason,” said Nisar Khan, Education inspector for Mumbai region. Of these 68 schools, 40 were Marathi medium schools. There were also 22 English medium schools that did not find any takers.
Mumbai is the first region in the state where the online lottery was held. “The idea was to help parents take the admissions before the holidays begin for schools,” said an official. Parents can approach the school where their children have been allotted seats from April 21 to 30. The parents have to enter their username and login ID on the rte25admission.maharashtra.gov.in site and carry a print out of the allocation letter to the school. A child will be given a choice of four schools which they can choose from. “The dates will be extended if necessary,” he added.
The government took many steps this year to spread awareness about RTE admissions. “227 corporators were given handbills to distribute in their localities,” said Dinkar Temkar, Deputy Director, primary education. Totally 5000 handbills were distributed. The government also set up 36 help centres to guide parents during the process. It also published advertisements in newspapers of different mediums. “There were also some corporators who set up their own help centres to help parents,” said Hemangi Worlikar, chairperson of Education Committee of the BMC. Due to these efforts the number of applications has gone up from 4,096 last year to 12,794 this year. Of these only 6409 applications were approved, as others did not fulfill the eligibility criteria such as age and economic status.
Of the 317 schools that have registered 274 were state board schools. There were 42 Marathi medium, six Hindi and one Urdu medium school among the 317.