For more than eight months, a group of about 40 parents have been running from pillar to post to get their children admitted in private schools in the city under the Right to Education (RTE) quota, but to no avail.
Despite over a dozen visits to private schools, office of the Block Education Officer, office of the Commissioner for Public Instruction and the High Court of Karnataka, their children are still at home. The parents were hoping to get their children admitted in “big” private schools.
Denied admissions, they had approached the High Court for relief. While the High Court directed six private schools, which had denied admissions to 149 seats under the RTE quota claiming to be minority institutions, to immediately admit students in the current academic year, three schools have got a stay from the Supreme Court.
“There are over a 100 parents whose children have failed to get admission under the quota. But people have lost faith in the system as numerous protests have gone in vain. Parents from lower middle class families cannot even dream of obtaining the seats,” said Rajesh Kumar. Mr. Rajesh had sought admission for his four-year-old daughter.
“After fighting for eight months, I told my daughter she would finally go to school and took her to a studio to get her photo clicked. She was so excited. What do I tell her now?”
He said that the group of parents had rejoiced on several occasions — when it was declared that their children could be admitted in schools, after the High Court order. “We distributed sweets to officials in the Education Department a day after the High Court verdict. But, a few days later, we realised that the schools had decided not to give seats to our children,” he said.
Narrating the ordeal of a parent, Chandrashekar K., an autorickshaw driver, who had applied for a seat in a school in S.G. Palya for his son, said, “We are not even allowed to enter the schools. It has been four months since the academic year commenced, and our children are still at home. The least that the government could do is to accommodate our children in other private schools.”
Mohammad Mohsin, Commissioner for Public Instruction, said that he has directed the Block Education Officer to make alternative arrangements for these students in other schools. However, this would later be subject to the Supreme Court judgement, he said.
