Kolhapur: The district education department will hold the 25% Right to Education (RTE) admission process for reserved category students from Monday next week.The department has also published a detailed schedule under which school registrations will start from January 16 and the online admission process for parents will start from February 5.Subhash Chougule, education officer (primary) of the Kolhapur zilla parishad, said, "According to the schedule given to us by school education department, school registrations will start from January 16 to February 2. Parents can fill in the online applications between February 5 and February 21. The first lottery will be drawn on February 27 and 28 and the actual admissions will start from March 1 to March 9."He said that the vacant seats remaining after the first admission round will be announced on March 10 and 11 and the second lottery will start from March 14 to 15. The admission process will end on April 29 after the end of five lottery rounds.Chougule added that schools will also have to make ensure that all information regarding RTE is displayed on a notice board kept at a place visible to all the parents.He said that parents living on rent can produce the birth certificate and the rent agreement to finalise the admission.He added that schools can't reject admissions based on mistakes like spelling errors in students' names in the online application form. The schools also can't reject applications stating discrepancy in income certificates produced by the students' parents. The block education officer will have to cross-check all income certificates with the tehsildar. If any fraud is found, the admission has to be cancelled immediately and action will be initiated as per the law. He appealed to parents to choose nearby schools. If the number of students within a 1-km radius of a school is more than the number of seats available, a lottery will be held. If the situation is other way around, all students will be eligible. The same process will be applied within 3-km radius.Sattappa Mohite, education activist, said that the RTE admission system is getting a poor response in the city as well as district and needs to be changed. It has received poor response at the urban as well as rural areas and has resulted in the low student response to the admission process.

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