Ahmedabad: 2nd round RTE admission delayed, parents worried

After the government delay in declaring the second round of admissions under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, many parents opt out or wait tirelessly. Parents have written to the education department seeking announcement of second round of admissions as early as possible.

The first list of RTE admissions was released on May 6 and parents were asked to confirm their admissions by May 13. The date was later extended for few days. However, it has been more than 15 days that the first round has been completed but there has been no word from the government on the second round.

An RTE activist Gulmoin Khokhar, who runs Zubeida Seva Ghar that helps parents with admission process under RTE said, "There are hundreds of parents waiting for second round. New academic year will be commencing in schools soon, and with the delay, students who come from underprivileged background will miss many days of school. Fearing this, many parents have paid fees and gone ahead with the admission."

The letter written by the parents and Khokhar said, "It is our request to start second round process as soon as possible. We request you to look into this matter considering the difficulties faced by number of underprivileged parents who are deprived of availing benefits of RTE."

MI Joshi, director, Primary Education said, "Our priority is first to settle the minority institutions admission issue. Supreme Court asked all the minority schools, who have not received NOC from national commission, to admit RTE students, and there are around 1600 such students. We will take a week's time to admit students who have been allotted seats in minority schools and then we will proceed with second round of admissions."

Wasim Shaikh, a parent said, "I have got my child admitted in a Madrassa as an alternate option."