PUNE: Over 23,000 candidates from the first lottery process are still awaiting admissions against 25 per cent seat reservation under Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act in the State. While, more than 8,000 students in the city are yet to take admission.
As per the data received from state school and sports department, as many as 43,733 admissions have been completed across the state till now. A total of 67,706 selections were made in the first lottery system across the state. This year, a total of 2,44,934 applications against 1,16,779 seats were received for admission under RTE across the state. Total 8,498 admissions out of 12,566 selection have been done in Pune district.
The schools were directed to finish first lottery round admission procedure by Saturday. However, the directorate of primary education has extended the admission dates till May 10.
Pune Zilla Parishad Education Officer, Sunil Kurhade said, “The pending number for admission are of those candidates whose parents haven’t come to schools for admission. The extension has been given for those parents so that they can complete the admission process.”
RTE activist Mukund Kirdat stated that failure of school administration in meeting the deadline has led to the extension of dates. “The administration has been increasing the last date of first lottery admissions. Previously, it was extended from April 26 to May 4. The directorate has cited it as according to parents and activist organisations, the dates have been extended. However, this is not the case. The delay has been happening due to failure of schools in completing the admission procedures on time,” said Kirdat.
“Schools haven’t received their refunds, many are demanding unnecessary documents from parents, while many parents aren’t even aware of the new list of required documents. This has caused inconvenience especially to parents in rural areas because of which the admission rate has been low there,” said Kirdat.
He also added, “Another issue is that schools are rejecting several forms due to wrong google mapping. According to ongoing admission process, the school has to be at distance of 1 km from the candidate’s house. However, Google doesn’t show the exact location. The schools should rather re-consider these forms instead of rejecting it on the first go.”
