Private school managements in the city on Friday admitted that they have completed admissions for non-RTE quota seats. It is in violation of the instruction laid out by the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) which states that the 75 per cent non-RTE quota seats must be filled only after the 25 per cent seats reserved for children from underprivileged sections of society are filled. Speaking to presspersons after a meeting with officials of the DPI here on Friday, L.R. Shivarame Gowda, chairperson of the Joint Action Committee of Private Schools said: “We have already completed our non-RTE admissions. The department should not interfere with admissions of non-RTE seats.”
To a query, he said: “Who are they (department) to question admissions that are not under RTE quota. We completed admissions for the next academic year way back in September-October last year.”
However, officials wondered how the private schools completed the admission for non-RTE quota when the rules stipulate that admission for them begins only after seats under RTE quota are filled. But, officials of the department are yet to act and have issued a notice only to one school in North Bangalore for having begun admissions, and official in-charge of South Bangalore was unavailable for comment.
Meanwhile, during the meeting, there was a heated debate between private school managements and officials where the private school managements presented a list of 22 demands. Mr. Gowda urged the department to take steps to ensure that there was scrutiny to tackle fake income certificates that were provided by parents for obtaining seats under the RTE quota. The department assured them that if fake income certificates were brought to the notice of the department, admissions under RTE quota would be cancelled.
Besides, D. Shashi Kumar, organising secretary of the Karnataka State Private Schools Managements’ Federation, said that there were several middlemen who lured parents into getting them seats under the RTE quota. The association also urged the department to increase the government reimbursement ceiling which is currently fixed at Rs. 11,848 a year for a child admitted to Class 1 and Rs. 5,924 for a child in pre-school.
Commissioner for Public Instruction Mohammad Mohsin said that the department would examine the demand for increasing the reimbursement. He also said that private unaided schools would receive the first instalment reimbursements for RTE quota seats for this academic year by January 20. “We will also make sure that we look into the second instalments on priority basis,” he said.
