Confusion prevails over allotment of seats under RTE

Mysuru: Thousands of students and parents from economically weaker and socially disadvantaged sections of society on Thursday faced anxious moments over getting free seats under RTE to LKG and Class I in private schools.
Uncertainty loomed large with them not receiving any update on the RTE seat allotment, which, according the revised calendar of events, was to happen on Wednesday itself. However, the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) issued a notification later in the day, stating the seat-allotment process will happen on July 29.
As many as 11,466 children have applied for 10,478 seats being made avaialbe as RTE seats at private unaided schools.
According to the DPI notification dated July 3, the seat allotment was scheduled for Wednesday (July 22). But when the parents did not get any SMS on the same, they tried to contact the RTE helpline in Bengaluru. They got anxious when the helpline did not respond.
“We were informed by the DPI officials that we will receive the seat allotment results via SMS on Wednesday. As we didn’t receive any SMS, we tried to call the RTE helpline, but there was no response,” said Mary P, a resident from Ashokapuram here.
District-level DPI officials said that seat allotment did not happen on Wednesday. “We are waiting for the information in this regard from the head office,” said many officials that TOI spoke to.
Nagasimha G Rao, convener, RTE task force, said that the DPI should have kept the parents in loop. “All of them waited anxiously. There was no update from the department (till Thursday afternoon),” he said.
When contacted, DPI commissioner K G Jagadish said the RTE seat allotment process did not happen on Wednesday due to technical reasons. “We have rescheduled it for July 29,” he added.