With academic year set to begin, parents left in the lurch

Scores of children have been left in the lurch after some recognised private schools have decided to shut down for the 2017-18 academic year owing to lack of funds.

With just about a month for the academic year to begin, anxious parents are busy looking for schools that will admit their children. The ones who are the worst affected are students admitted under RTE quota in these private schools.

Trishul Educational Centre in J.P. Nagar, Bengaluru, is among the schools to close.

Short notice

A parent, whose child studied in the school, said many private schools had completed admissions for the coming academic year.

“The only option I have is a government or an aided school. But, I do not want to admit my child here as the facilities are not up to the mark,” the parent said, adding that he learnt of the school closure only a few months ago.

A representative of the school said that they were a low budget private school that would charge ₹10,000 per annum. “Parents were not willing to pay more and it was becoming difficult to function on such low fees. We were unable to pay salaries to our nine teachers and five non-teaching staff. So, we decided to shut down the school in a phased manner.”

Another such school is V.S.S. Public School in Banashankari. Mahesh H.A., an autorickshaw driver whose daughter completed class two under the RTE quota, said: “The school management is asking us to contact the Education Department, and the department officials are saying our children could study in an aided or government school. They also said we have to pay the fees if we want them to study in another private school.”

RTE Students and Parents’ Association general secretary B.N. Yogananda has urged the department to ensure that the students are allotted seats.

Officials of the Department of Public Instruction said there was no transfer policy of children who were admitted under the RTE quota. “As far as parents of children in the non-RTE quota are concerned, they need to be given notice. There is not much we can do to control the growth of private schools,” the official added.

Lottery process

The online lottery process for allotment of RTE quota seats will be conducted on Friday. The department has received 2.1 lakh applications for 1.29 lakh seats available under the quota in private unaided schools across the State.