

PUNE: Schools must keep the 25% reserved seats for economically backward students vacant right from pre-primary section if they cannot afford to bear the expenses of their school.

As per the Right to Education Act, schools are reimbursed the fees of students admitted under 25% quota, after they get promoted from class I to class II.

Many schools admit students at the entry level which is the pre-primary class. But reimbursement of fees by the state government starts from the primary section as the pre-primary is not regulated by any state law.

Schools have complained to the state government that they cannot afford the fees of reserved students at the pre-primary level. This has prompted education minister Vinod Tawde to announce that schools must keep the 25% seats vacant from the pre-primary section if they cannot afford to admit students and fill these seats at the primary level (standard I), when actual reimbursements start.

Tawde told TOI, "Every school has some issue or the other. Schools complain that they will admit children only from the primary section entry level and not the pre-primary because they do not get reimbursed. So, the state government has suggested that they must keep the 25% seats vacant in such a situation. They cannot fill up all the seats at the pre-primary level."

He cited an example saying that, if a school has 100 seats in the pre-primary section, they must keep 25 seats vacant starting from nursery, junior and kindergarten.

These schools must admit only 75 students. When this batch reaches primary section, then the admission through the RTE process must be conducted for the 25% reserved seats.

Schools have to register for the online admissions process of the state education department with details of their school including locality, number of seats, board affiliation, fees, among other things.

The admissions of the 25% reserved seats is centralised across the state and seats are allotted to applicants as per the location of their residence and preferences.

Tawde said, "Many schools have told us they have more seats at primary level so adding 25% would require addition in the divisions. We have asked them to draft a proposal for additional divisions and they will be granted after proper scrutiny."

The schools receive a reimbursement of around Rs 15,000 per student, per year admitted under the RTE Act. However, the reimbursement process began much later after the admission rules came into effect in the state.

A school principal said, "We received the reimbursement for 2011 admissions, last year. We are still fighting for the reimbursements for the following two years and we are already conducting admissions for the next academic year. Yet, the government expects us to admit students from the pre-primary section, which is unfair."

RTE eligibility

Weaker sections-Vimukta Jati and Nomadic Tribes (VJNT), Other Backward Classes (OBC), Special Backward Classes (SBC), religious minorities specified by the state and those whose parent or guardian has an annual income of less than Rs 1 lakh

Disadvantaged group-Scheduled Caste (SC), Schedule Tribe (ST) and children with disability

Entry level for children under the RTE Act is either in standard I at the age of six or at the pre-school level, if the school imparts such education

(Source-RTE Act, 2009 and related rules)

