Chennai has received 2,635 applications under RTE

C Shivakumar

Chennai:

The school education department in the city has till now received a total of 2,635 applications for the 6,600 seats available under Right to Education (RTE) quota.

A senior school education department said that there has been an increase in the number of applications when compared to 1600 applications received last year.

However, this did not bring a smile on the faces of parents and social activists who complain that 25 per cent quota in the city schools won’t be filled up as there is no clarity about the act among the people.

With couple of weeks left, parents are running from pillar to post to get the applications and many of them have been turned away from schools.

Director of Thozhamai A Devaneyan, who is helping parents living below the poverty line to access the application forms, says that there is no clarity on the act on whether it is applicable to aided or minority institutions.

He says many of the parents who don’t have identity proof or residence proof may not be able to meet the May 31 deadline. “This is because the delay in getting the documents due to the Lok Sabha elections. The revenue department focus was on elections as a result many parents were unable to get the documents on time,” he said.

But officials said that the deadline to submit applications has been extended to May 31 following the elections. Even the instructions on which all schools fall under RTE has been given, an official said.

The decision to extend the deadline is a wecome step, says P Joseph Victor Raj, state convenor, Campaign Against Child Labour, Tamil Nadu and Pondychery. But he feels that RTE being implemented under different boards makes it complex.

While the state is only monitoring primary, private, elementary and matriculation schools, most of the below poverty line parents who aspire for providing Central Board of Secondary education for their children don’t know where to get applications. “They are uneducated and all they want is to provide quality education for their wards. They even don’t know what an application leave alone filling it up,” says Devaneyan. A state government official said that CBSE applications under RTE is being scrutinised by the regional director.

Meanwhile, there are also conflicting figures of the total availability of seats under RTE in the states and those being filled up. Initially, the figure was given as 56,682 and then it rose by couple of thousands, says Joseph. “There is a need to have a white paper in this regard. It should provide details about the number of seats available in the state as well as those being filled up during 2012-13 and 2013-14 academic year. So that schools are properly reimbursed,” he said.