SHUBHANGI SHIFA
Ranchi, May 5: With private schools including DPS, Sapphire International and JVM Shyamali beginning admissions for the session of 2022-23, several families under the BPL category have been running around to get their children admitted to private schools under the Right to Education Act (RTE Act) this year.
Around 89 of these schools have already admitted a little over 400 BPL students under the RTE Act this session.
As per District Superintendent of Education (DSE) Kamala Singh, “We have received a report stating that around 400 students have been admitted in schools at primary and secondary levels under the RTE Act. We have asked for a detailed report including names and other data of said students. We provide around Rs 5000 per child to schools under the act.”
“We have around 25 percent of seats allotted in overall 103 schools in the city making, the number of seats up to 1052. However, as per data, only 402 BPL students were admitted to private schools in the year 2020-21, while the number went up to 435 in the session of 2021-22. When compared to the data showcasing 350 admissions in the session 2019-20, the numbers seem to be increasing with each passing year,” the DSE added, when enquired about the slow admissions.
Meanwhile, on the condition of not being named, a private school official stated, “Private schools shy away from taking admission of children under RTE in their school because they are given very little money by the government. In private schools, for instance, if the fee is Rs. 4000 every month, the government spends Rs. 5100 in a year for BPL children. Along with this, Rs 245 is paid as tuition fee.”
Officials have also claimed that in Jharkhand, around 21,000 BPL students have been able to study from private schools in the state in the past 11 years under the Right to Education Act.
For the education of these children, about Rs 11 crores have been given by the state government to private schools as fees. In the state capital Ranchi, the admission figures under RTE are less than half of the target set every year. This could help estimate the condition of students taking admission and completing studies under RTE in the entire state.
The admission criteria for these BPL children are:
- Those parents whose annual income is less than Rs 72,000 can apply for the admission of their children.
- The age of the child should be between three and a half years to four and a half years for admission in Nursery and LKG, while for admission in class I, the age of the child should be between five and a half years to seven years.
- If the criteria are fulfilled, children may be allowed admission on the 25 percent seats of admission class in 103 private schools in the district.
- Parents may apply online for this.
- As per the rules of the Act, applications can be made for admission in private schools located within the range of one kilometre, three-kilometre and five-kilometre of the child’s residence.
