The education department of Panvel district on Thursday asked schools in Navi Mumbai to re-admit those children whose admissions in the pre-primary section under the Right to Education quota (RTE) had been cancelled recently.
The education department of Panvel district on Thursday asked schools in Navi Mumbai to re-admit those children whose admissions in the pre-primary section under the Right to Education quota (RTE) had been cancelled recently.
In a Thursday meeting attended by about 20 Navi Mumbai schools, the department gave the schools the right to charge full fees for the academic year, and to cancel the admissions of children whose parents cannot pay up. The department said that this right to collect fees from parents of RTE quota children would be withdrawn if the state government decided to pay the fees instead.
This development was confirmed by Navnath Sable, block education officer, Panvel district.
The pre-primary admissions under RTE quota had been cancelled via a Government Resolution (GR) passed on April 30 by the government of Maharashtra. In the GR, the state said that pre-primary education is not subject to state-government funding, and had refused to reimburse the school fees of the children who were admitted under the quota.
The GR sparked mass protests among education activists.
Reacting to the pressure, the state government is said to have backtracked on its stance. Now the state is in talks with the Union government to try and get funds for pre-primary admissions under the RTE quota, according to an Panvel education department official.
An official of a Navi Mumbai school said, "It was shocking when the education official said that we should stop cancelling the pre-primary admissions under the RTE quota. We have been told that the state government is in talks with the centre (for funds) and the results of the talks will be apparent soon. So, we were asked not to cancel any admissions right now."
The principal of another Navi Mumbai school said, "We are wondering what to do now. Initially the GR instructed us to cancel the pre-primary admissions under RTE, and now the meeting was called to tell us not to cancel. We have been threatened that if we cancel pre-primary admissions, and if a parent complains to the education officer, then our no-objection certificate (to run our schools) will be cancelled."
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