2nd round of admission under RTE quota today

All state board schools are expected to reopen on Monday, but the real question here is will children hailing from economically weaker section (EWS) be able to attend. The BMC education department have failed to conduct the second round of lottery on Friday for EWS pre-primary admission under the 25% Right to Education (RTE) quota. The BMC officials have confirmed that the second round will be held on Saturday.

Parents from EWS have been allotted admissions by the BMC in pre-primary section of city schools, most of them await to get confirmation from the designated schools. The first round of lottery was held on May 13, the second was slated for June 2, which further got delayed as no information was available from school on how many admission have been confirmed. The BMC also blamed the Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited, the company that is providing the service to BMC on RTE admission process. The second round will take place at 12pm at the BMC's education office in Dadar (E).

Samir Sheikh, father of a 5-year-old said, "My child won't be able to attend the first day as the school claims he is not eligible to get an admission because of his age. The online admission is also not accepting his form because of the age."

K Narayan, secretary of Anudanit Shiksha Bachao Samiti (ASBS), said, "A Majority of parents are waiting to get the admission of their ward confirmed from schools, even though the allotment is done by the BMC. Some of them, who have got admission in elite schools have been asked to pay a huge amount for uniforms and books costing starting from Rs4,000 up to Rs9,200."