4 Mumbai schools set 1-day age window to qualify for RTE quota

Are schools misusing the flexibility given to them by the government to decide the age criteria for RTE admissions? An analysis done by Nishank Varshney, a research associate who works for IIM-Ahmedabad's RTE resource centre, indicates that this might be true.

Since the government has not instructed the schools to keep a minimum window of 1 year between maximum and minimum age for RTE admissions, 8 schools in Mumbai and Pune have shockingly allotted an admission window of just 1 day. This means that only a child born on a particular date can apply for RTE admission in these schools, not on the date before and not on the date after.

One example quoted by Varshney is: You can get admitted to class 1 in school in Bhandup only if you were lucky enough to be born between February 24 and 25, 2010, according to the age criteria. Hence, if you were born before February 24, you fail to qualify under the minimum age category, and if you were born on February 25, you have crossed the maximum age cut-off.

What has the study shown?
The analysis shows that limiting the admission to only a small window of a particular date of birth has significant implications on the implementation of RTE. The analysis was done on 457 schools in Pune and 321 schools in Mumbai who are listed on government websites for RTE admission.

The analysis of 457 Pune schools shows that 38% of the schools have chosen an admission window of less than 11 months, with nearly 1/4th of the schools chose a window of less than 6 months. While there is no information on the website for 16 schools, 14 schools have chosen a window of less than 30 days.

A similar analysis of all 321 schools admitting children through RTE in Mumbai, shows that in Mumbai as well, more than 40% of the schools have chosen an admission window of less than 11 months, with nearly 30% of the schools chose a window of less than 6 months.

How will this affect students?
According to Varshney, the implications of keeping such age criteria would be limiting the allowed date of birth period to around 6 months, denying half the students a chance to apply to that particular school. This results in the school receiving less applications and the probability of more RTE remaining vacant after the lottery process.

What would schools get out of this?
Nishank Varshney said, "We are not sure whether this action is intentional on part of schools, but it does look like an intelligent tactic of keeping their RTE seats vacant. We would strongly urge the government to immediately look into this issue and find out whether the schools are following the same date of birth criteria for the remaining 75% admissions."

"If many schools have put an admission window of as low as one day. This means only a child born on a particular date can apply for admission to that school. The rest of the children will feature in the list of ineligible students with the reason as 'Date of birth not matching'," said Varshney.

Expertspeak
Najma Kazi, principal and president of the Urdu Headmasters Association, said, "Keeping a window of as less as one day is ridiculous. The schools should keep an age criteria of which students can take advantage and apply. How many criteria will the government bring? It is their responsibility also to make facilities available for disadvantaged groups."

Echoing the sentiments of Kazi, Shyam Sonar, a social activist who works in the education sector, said, "It is simple. Schools don't want to fill the seats and want to keep it vacant, which is a violation of the RTE Act."