Only 4 percent of parents aware of privileges under RTE

Only four percent of parents from the economically and socially backward category in the national capital are aware of the privileges accorded to children under the RTE act, a report said Friday.

The report by Indus Action, an NGO, working towards the implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) act said: "Seats reserved for the economically and socially backward students in private unaided schools of Delhi are not being completely utilised due to lower awareness levels, procedural barriers and lack of efforts towards social integration."

The RTE act mandates that private unaided schools reserve 25 percent of the seats in their entering class for students from the economically weaker and socially disadvantaged sections of the society.

The report also stated that no information dissemination through government channel, non-availability of application forms, corruption-ridden process for getting necessary documentation and lack of transparency in admission processes were some of the key barriers.

Shailaja Chandra, former Delhi chief secretary, highlighted the initiatives the report which proposes ensuring that 35,000 seats are available under the RTE every year for the economically and socially backward students.

The initiatives include receiving clear order from the state government led by the department of education on the guidelines for admissions, preparing an effective budgetary plan prepared by the administrators for sustainability of the law with timely reimbursement to schools, soliciting greater participation of schools towards any change in the law and ensuring involvement of NGOs on the ground in communities for information dissemination and enrolment support.