After chaos, tweak in submission rules brings some relief to RTE parents

Nagpur: Non-availability of the option to upload caste certificate and proof of income at the time of online form submission for admission under Right to Education (RTE) quota led to last minute panic among several parents in the city on Thursday.
Following massive outcry, local primary school education officials tweaked the norm to accept the forms and supporting documents from parents.
Rohini Kumbhar, education officer (primary), issued a letter to deputy education officer, urban resource centre (URC) at Sitabuldi and block education officer at all panchayat samitis to accept the two supporting documents as submitted by parents.
A controversy erupted after URC officials rejected forms of parents who submitted income certificate and caste certificate issued after March 5, 2023, when they filed online forms under the quota.
This year, the school education department has made it compulsory to submit the documents available as on the online application date on the portal.
However, the portal didn’t have any option to upload these documents. Some parents also applied for these certificates after RTE allotment.
Parents complained that their forms were not accepted when they went for document verification. Many of them approached Nagpur district Congress committee minority cell president Wasim Khan for help.
“The RTE applications started in February and the results were declared from April 13 onwards. Parents started getting calls for document verification. Some got an appointment for April 25. Later, they were asked to collect their admission slip on May 2. But they were left baffled when officials told them that supporting documents issued after the RTE application date would not be accepted,” Khan said.
Khan then reached the URC along with several aggrieved parents and confronted the officials.