Don’t fill RTE Act seats with general candidates till Nov. 15’

NEWS STATES TAMIL NADU
TAMIL NADU
‘Don’t fill RTE Act seats with general candidates till Nov. 15’
File photo of the Madras High Court.
File photo of the Madras High Court.
Mohamed Imranullah S.
CHENNAI 11 SEPTEMBER 2020 00:22 IST
UPDATED: 11 SEPTEMBER 2020 03:37 IST

Earnest efforts should be made to choose deserving children, says High Court
The Madras High Court has ordered that all private schools in the State wait till November 15 before filling, with general candidates, the vacant seats among those earmarked for the 25% quota at the entry level (LKG or Class I) under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009.

Justices M.M. Sundresh and R. Hemalatha also ordered that the School Education Department make earnest efforts to ensure that all seats under the RTE Act quota get filled with deserving children belonging to the weaker sections and disadvantaged groups, and by following the neighbourhood schooling norms.

Disposing of a public interest litigation petition filed by the Popular Front of India (PFI), the judges directed the School Education Department to publicise well the contact details of the monitoring committees constituted to inquire into complaints of irregularities and corruption in the filling of the RTE Act seats.

Advertising
Ad

Advertising
The direction was issued after PFI counsel I. Abdul Basith told the court that people were unaware of the authorities to whom complaints should be addressed and some breathing time should be granted for finalising the RTE Act admissions even after the government fixed the October 7 deadline for completing the entire process.

In a counter-affidavit, Deputy Secretary K. Jeyalalitha said the School Education Department had begun accepting online applications for RTE Act admissions since August 27. The last date for submitting the applications was September 25, and the names of eligible and ineligible candidates would be released on September 30.

The names would be published on the School Education Department’s website and displayed on the notice boards of individual schools with reasons for declaring applicants ineligible. If the number of eligible applicants for a particular school was more than 25% of the seats, admissions would be decided through random selection (the draw of lots) on October 1.

Finally, the list of selected candidates would be released on October 3, and individual schools shall submit written statements to the officials concerned on October 7, the court was told. It was also informed that the total number of seats available at the entry level in every school and the number earmarked for the RTE Act quota had been publicised.

The details had been hosted on the School Education Department’s website. Further, individual schools had been instructed to display those details by printing them on a 6×10 ft flex board to be erected adjacent to the name board at the main entrance of every school, Ms. Jeyalalitha told the court.

However, Mr. Basith brought it to the notice of the court that the counter did not state anything about the existence of the monitoring committees and the complaints that could be lodged with them about irregularities in the RTE Act admissions. He recalled that such committees were ordered to be constituted on July 6, 2015, by a Bench led by the then Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul. Then, the School Education Department had informed the court that individual schools had been asked not to fill vacant RTE Act seats with general candidates till November 2015 in order to make earnest efforts to fill them with deserving children. A similar deadline should be followed this year too, he insisted.

You may also like...