BENGALURU: From the academic year 2018-19, minority educational institutions will be allowed to admit 25% students belonging to religious as well as linguistic minority communities, and they can hail from any of these minority communities. The state government has recently amended the rules in the Karnataka Education Act 1983, which has been published in the state gazette.
As per the new amendments brought in, the education institutions (primary and secondary) established in the state by minority communities have no need to admit 25% of children belonging to the same community. Instead, the 25% of students can come from all religious and linguistic minority communities, said state primary and secondary education minister Tanveer Sait. He said “Our intention of bringing amendments to the act for minority institutions is to put the rights provided in the Constitution in place.”
Sait further said: “The status of minority institutions should not be diluted. Until the 2014 amendments, it was mandatory for 75% students of that community; the 2014 amendments brought it down to 25%. And now, it is minority institutions that should have 25% students belonging to any minority community (linguistic and religious).”
However, there are no changes in the board of members or management members at the institutions established by minority community — 2/3rd of the management members should belong to that particular community which established the institute.Sait mentioned that while applying for status or renewal of minority status, the schools concerned must apply along with all related documents. “Although the population of linguistic minority is less in the state, our intention is to not dilute the status of the minority institutions,” he said.
This amendment comes as a boon to several linguistic minority institutions, which were struggling to get minority status due to shortage of students from that particular community. For instance, an institution run by the Telugu-speaking community seeking minority status under linguistic category, faced rejection due to to shortage of students from that linguistic community. Now, the path is clear and they can consider 25% students not just from Telugu-speaking community, but also count in students from other minority communities, both religious and linguistic.
RTE activists irked
Experts from the field of education and Right to Education (RTE) activists say that this is a threat to RTE seats. “When government tweaked the rules, more number of institutions would get minority status and this would eat into the RTE quota as there is an exemption for minority institutions from providing seats under RTE quota,” said an RTE activist.