The Gujarat government on Saturday admitted in the state assembly that around 20 percent of the underprivileged children were deprived of their right to study in private schools under the Right to Education Act (RTE) during 2019 and 2020.

While admissions under RTE have been initiated in many states for the next academic years and lakhs of underprivileged children are availing the benefits of it, the situation in Gujarat has raised several questions after the information regarding admission under RTE quota was tabled in the Assembly on Saturday.

In a series of questions by several Congress MLAs on how many students were admitted in private schools under the RTE quota in the last two years, the government replied that a total of 1,94,783 students were eligible for admission during 2019 and 2020.

The admission vacancies under the RTE were as per the 25% quota of the total available seats in the private schools. However, despite having seats, a total of 40,530 students were deprived of admission in the private schools under the RTE quota.

Education Minister Bhupendra Chudasma in a written reply disclosed the district-wise details. In 2019-2020, a total of 1,04,045 students were eligible for admission under RTE, of which 82,726 students were admitted, whereas 21,319 were deprived of admission.

Likewise for the academic year 2020-2021, there were 90,738 students entitled for admission under the RTE quota in private schools, of which 71,527 were enrolled in the schools, while 19,211 students were deprived of admission.

The Congress alleged that the government had given a free hand to the private schools to levy exorbitant fees, and deliberately ignore the mandatory 25% RTE quota admissions, so that the private players could earn money by charging fees. It is the policy of the BJP government to deprive the poor students of educational rights, alleged the Congress.