RTE admission rules notified, September 30 deadline to end process for current academic year

For the last two years, the admission process has been dragging with barely two months to go for the academic year to end. Observing that such delays in admissions are not only causing problems to schools but also severe academic losses to the students, Dinkar Temkar, the director of primary education in Maharashtra issued the circular on Friday.

“The admission for academic year 2020-21 dragged on till January 2021 and similarly for 2021-22, the process ended in January 2022. Such delays affect schools in their planning as well as lead to academic loss of students admitted later in schools,” the circular read.

Meanwhile, the RTE admission process for academic year 2022-2023 has already started with registrations of schools and information of available seats to be completed by January 31. According to the RTE admission calendar, parents are expected to start filling forms for EWS quota seats from February 1 to 28, once the information is put out by the schools. The first draw of RTE lottery seats is planned in the second week of March.

However, officials at the state primary education department said that a delay in the process is likely since many schools have not completed the registration process. Unless all eligible schools complete it, there would be no clarity on the number of seats that are available.

In the last few weeks, many officials of the education department and school managements have contracted Covid-19 because of which some delays have taken place in completing the registration. Last year, many schools had refused to participate in the quota admission process due to delay in receiving reimbursements for EWS admissions.

The circular has asked block education officers to ensure that all eligible schools register themselves, and that the 30 per cent seats are calculated as per admissions of open category students that have taken place over the last three years in schools.

The circular also specified that there would be only one draw of lottery seats this academic year and a waiting list would be declared for the remaining candidates. If students allotted in the lottery round fail to take admissions, the seats would be offered to those on the second waiting list. The fact that a student’s name appears on a waiting list does not guarantee admission.