Under Section 12 (1) (c) of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009, private schools in Uttar Pradesh should be keeping 25% or 2,13,414 seats reserved for disadvantaged groups and weaker sections. However, fresh information suggests that just about 59,656 seats – or 22% of the allocated seats for weaker sections – have been made available for them in the state.
Citing district-wise figures, a statement by the Socialist Party (India), which is led, among others, by well-known Magsaysay award winning social activist, Sandeep Pandey, offers instances where the parents of the children from backward background are unable to get necessary documents from the government for admission in the 25% reserved quota.
“For example, the admission of Halima, daughter Yasser Arafat, in the academic session 2019-20 was ordered at Pioneer Montessori Junior High School, Yahyaganj, but the letter from the Basic Education Officer's office was not released”, the statement complains.
The statement demands that the poorer children who have been studying in private schools, as also those of the government schools, should be provided with mobile phones in order to ensure that they are not left out in the current drive for online schooling amidst Covid-19 crisis.
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