BHUBANESWAR: In a bid to ensure admission of students from economically weaker sections in private schools under the Right to Education (RTE) Act Odisha government will identify students and send them to respective schools. The school and mass education department decided to take this initiative after a large number of schools in the city violated the RTE guideline to reserve 25% seats for students of below poverty line (BPL) category."Most schools make excuses that they don't get applications from students for admission under this category. So we decided that we would identify the students and send them to different private schools," said director elementary education, Chudamani Seth The school and mass education department on Tuesday called a meeting of various leading private schools, parent associations and civil society groups working on RTE to discuss issues related to admission under 25% reservations under RTE.As many as 212 private schools in and around Bhubaneswar did not give admissions to students of 6-14 years age under the RTE guidelines. Of the total 16,000 admissions made in different schools in the city only 307 students have been admitted under the 25% reservations in 2016-17 academic session, informed the school and mass education minister in Assembly.Sources said, private schools make several excuses for not admitting students from the category like no applications were filed, they cannot cope, parents refused to send their kids to these schools and so on. They even admit general students in seats meant for these kids while the guidelines prescribes that if the reserved seats remain vacant due to unavailability of students, schools can admit poor students within one km distance or keep them vacant. Schools have also been asked to display the number of students admitted under the quota on their notice boards."There are so many issues related to giving admission under the RTE quota. Only giving free education till 14 years age is not enough, nobody thinks what's after. Will the kids continue studies after that and where? Besides, apart from school fee there are several other expenses how poor parents bear it," said principal of BJEM School, Sandhya Jena . BJEM School has admitted some students under the RTE quota but alleged that the government did not reimburse the amount."Earlier they said the amount will be reimbursed but now amended the guidelines that private schools which have taken any form of government help like land, furniture, financial aid under MPLAD or MLA LAD will not be provided any reimbursement from the state government for admission of students under 25 % quota. This is unfair. Schools are not profit making bodies," Jena said.The guidelines said, those schools who have taken no help from government will be reimbursed Rs 9,184 per year per child for admissions under the RTE."We have invited suggestions from all stake holders regarding proper implementation of the Act. There is existing guidelines and we would fine-tune it on the basis of the recommendations," said Deepak Ray, assistant director (planning), OPEPA.The private school authorities were also upset over the absence of school and mass education secretary, who did not attend the meeting. "Who called the meeting was absent. It shows the kind of sincerity the government has towards the issue," said a principal.

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