The enrolment of students from the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) and disadvantaged sections in private schools in Odisha under the Right to Education (RTE) Act 2009 will commence on February 13. The registration process is for the academic session 2023-24. The directorate of elementary education has been asked by the School and Mass Education (SME) department to ensure the registration of schools and the updation of their information by February 5. The first round of registration that has been approved by the department will take place between February 13 and March 16, stated a report by The New Indian Express.
By March 20, the Block Education Officer (BEO) will complete the physical document verification, after which, on March 23 and 24, the first round of lottery and school allotment to eligible students will be done. From March 27 to April 6, shortlisted students will be admitted in the first round. The second phase of verification, according to officials, will begin on April 10 and go through April 24. The online lottery and school allotment for the chosen candidates will take place on April 28. The document verification of applicants in this round will last until April 24. Between April 29 and May 6, students will be admitted to private schools under the EWS quota in the second round.
Notably, private schools are required by Section 12(1)(c) of the RTE Act to reserve 25% of their seats for neighbourhood EWS students. Out of these, 10% are designated for children from scheduled castes and scheduled tribes (SC and ST), another 10% designated for children from BPL families and the remaining 5% designated for homeless children. The SME department launched the RTE-Paradarshi portal in 2021, in order to increase openness in the admissions procedure.
As of last year, there were 4,440 schools registered under RTE and there were a total of 41,006 seats available in those schools. The members of Odisha Abhibhabak Mahasangha pointed out that in order to prevent large-scale vacancies, an awareness drive needs to be taken up by the department. Last year, only 14,500 children from underprivileged backgrounds were enrolled in these seats and in 2021, the number was just around 5,000, stated the report by The New Indian Express.
