April 26 is the last date of submitting applications for admissions in the private schools of Dehradun district under the Right to Education (RTE). The RTE ensures that the 25 per cent seats in all the private schools are kept reserved for the students belonging to the underprivileged sections of the society.
The district has 4,085 vacancies in the private schools out of these 3,294 seats are occupied. The private schools give admissions to the poor students under RTE in class I. The State Government bears the cost of tuition fees and also pays for the mid day meals, textbooks and uniform of these students till class VIII. The District Education Officer (DEO) Primary Parmendra Saklani told The Pioneer that the interested and qualified candidates should contact the district or city coordinator of RTE and submit their application before the last date.
The RTE is clear in its description of underprivileged students who would avail the benefit. The section 2 D of RTE mentions that the students belonging to Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), non creamy layers of Other Backward Castes (OBCs), patients of leprosy and AIDS should be the beneficiaries of 25 per cent reservations under RTE. Section 2 E of the act includes all the individuals with an annual income of less than Rs55,000 as the beneficiaries of the aforesaid scheme. The students belonging to the above two categories could opt any school in their neighbourhood and enroll their wards in class I of that school. The schools are bound to give admissions in the 25 per cent seats and in case the seats are not filled then these seats would remain vacant. These vacant seats could be filled only by the students belonging to the underprivileged sections any time during the academic session.