Kolhapur: The directorate of primary education has extended the application deadline for the Right to Education (RTE) 25% quota admission process from February 25 to March 2.According to a circular issued by the department on Friday, the parents and education bodies from across the state had urged the directorate to extend the deadline, following which it has been extended for five days.Subhash Chougule, district primary education officer, Kolhapur ZP, said the extension will be effective till March 2 and it has been strictly instructed that the process will not get any further extension."The application process for parents that was supposed to begin from February 5 already started late owing to various technical reasons. It began from February 9 and due to this late start, the directorate had extended the process from earlier February 21 to February 25. However, after careful analysis, we have decided to get another and possibly final extension for the parents to apply under the scheme," he said.While another official said back-to-back extension will certainly affect the admission process of schools. It should be noted that this year's registration has got lower response with merely 201 applications in district and 156 applications in the city till last week.Sattappa Mohite, a city-based education activist, said simply extending the application date will not do any good for department or the parents and a concrete solution needs to be drawn for getting better response from our region."The changes in the admission schedule too need to reach to the beneficiaries, so as to remain in the loop of the process," he said.Under the RTE Act, economically and socially disadvantaged children, as well as those with disabilities, can be admitted in Class I or at the pre-primary stage, of private unaided schools. These children receive free education including textbooks, and other facilities. There are as many as 3,286 seats reserved for these kids in 321 schools across the city and district.

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