Jammu, Dec 02: Former education minister and senior leader Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Friday said private schools should implement Right to Education (RTE) Act strictly which mandates 25 per cent reservation in admissions for poor students.
“Despite the Right to Education (RTE) Act 2009 having become applicable to the UT of J&K, the present regime continues with its unabated violation thereby depriving the prospective beneficiaries of the benefits envisaged under the said Act,” he said.
Expressing dismay over the scant implementation of the most revolutionary provisions of the Act, Harsh Dev Singh said that it only demonstrated the “derision and contempt of the present rulers for the beneficial laws and educational reforms in the new UT.”
He said not only have the most revolutionary provisions of the RTE Act been “violated with impunity by the Education Department but the private schools also seem to have been granted immunity from observing the mandatory provisions of the Act.”
He alleged that the Education Department had refused to reply to repeated RTI applications seeking progress with regard to implementation of RTE Act in J&K. “It had made the most contemptuous mockery of both the Acts by denying reply under RTI Act only to conceal its lapses under the RTE Act.”
Elaborating the basic highlights of RTE Act, Singh said that it envisaged the right of children to free and compulsory education to all children in the age bracket of 6 to 14, from class-I to class-VIII.
He said the very significant feature of the RTE Act is that it provided that the private schools would have to take at least 25 percent of the class strength from Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) at the time of admission in class-I and provide free and compulsory education till class-VIII.
He said the Act provides that no school fee, capitation, charges or expenses are to be paid by the child to get elementary education, a provision which was being brazenly defied by the government schools in the UT of J&K, he said.
“Charging of admission fee and other charges was violative of the provisions of the Act, ” he added.
“The Act further states that no child or his parents would be subject to any screening procedure for admission to school, no child shall be held back in any class till class-VIII and no child expelled from school. It further calls for provision of free text-books, writing materials and uniforms.”
He said that AAP would take to agitational course against the “criminal negligence” towards the most significant sector affecting the careers of the budding nation builders.
