RTE admissions: Nagpur tops in registrations

NAGPUR: As many as 23,631 students from the city registered for admissions under 25% Right to Education (RTE) quota in schools, the highest among 36 districts of the state.
The drawing of lotteries for RTE admissions was held at BRA’s Mundle School on Monday.

Dipendra Lokhande, district education officer (primary), said, “The large number of registrations depicts the awareness about RTE in the city. This act is a ray of hope for people from the weaker sections, who want their kids to study in good schools.”

“The attendance of parents had been decreasing every year. But now we are happy as it is a clear indication that they have started trusting in us and are sure that the process will be fair and transparent,” he said.

The first phase of registration was completed on Sunday. Among the registered students, only 6,985 will get seats in 662 schools. Preference will be given to the students who reside in the range of 600m-1km, followed by those within 2-3 km radius. Bhavans, Shrikrishna Nagar, has received the maximum number of applications (2,242) this year.

The RTE lottery software uses a unique algorithm which gets its initial starting matrix by randomly chosen numbers, which was formed during the draw. Its grids are filled by randomly selected numbers using four separate bowls with paper chits containing numbers 0-9.

“The chits were pulled out by children from the audience and the numbers are verified by the authorities and then entered into the grid. The entire process was videotaped to ensure transparency. Once the grid is complete, it was displayed on the screen and people were allowed to click a picture,” Lokhande said.

This matrix grid numbers will now be sent to the education department headquarters at Pune where it will be fed into the lottery software. Later, lottery is conducted and parents of selected students get an SMS on their registered mobile numbers about their ward’s admission status. The result of the process will be out in a day or two.

Even after detailed clarity about the process, parents were seen demanding the entire process to be held in front of them instead of Pune.