BHUBANESWAR: More number of children from economically backward sections of society are taking admitted to private schools (both Odia and English medium) under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act in the 2023-24 academic year.
A total of 18,700 children from the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) have enrolled in schools for the session and as per reports of the School and Mass Education department, 9,717 have been allotted seats under RTE in the first phase. The first round of lottery and school allotment to eligible students was done on March 23 and 24 and they were admitted to the institutions from March 27 to April 6. The remaining students will be admitted in the second phase.
Officials said the second round of verification started on the day and will continue till April 24. The document verification of applicants in the round will continue till April 24 and the online lottery and school allotment to selected candidates will be done on April 28.
EWS quota admissions will be carried out till May 6. In 4,162 schools, 39,417 seats are meant for RTE admissions.
However, the admissions in the last five years have remained within 14,000. In the 2022-23 session, 14,000 poor students had taken admission while 5,000 were admitted to these seats in 2021-22 when the online enrolment system of the RTE-Paradarshi portal was launched. Prior to the online system, less than 2,000 EWS students were getting into private schools under RTE. In 2019, there were only 900 admissions.
Under section 12 (1)(c) of RTE Act, private schools must reserve 25 per cent of their seats for children belonging to EWS from the neighbourhood. Out of these, 10 per cent is reserved for scheduled caste and scheduled tribe students, 10 per cent for children from BPL families and five per cent for children without a home.
Meanwhile, members of Odisha Parents Federation on Monday submitted a memorandum to department secretary Aswathy S to extend EWS admission to students of Class IX, X, XI and XII. At present, such admissions are valid till a student reaches Class VIII.
Education activists said in order to further improve EWS admissions, the department needs to increase awareness of RTE and simplify the online admission process for poor parents who wish to admit their wards to private schools.
“There are many poor families for whom registration in the RTE-Paradarshi portal and digitising all the required documents is an uphill task. The department should provide them handholding support,” said federation president Basudev Bhatta.