05 April,2015 08:02 AM IST | | A Correspondent
Activists smell foul play as the list was to come out on the day of the lottery on Thursday
BMC education dept
BMC's education department has finally released figures highlighting the number of seats that were allotted in the first round of Right to Education (RTE) quota online admissions held on Thursday. Unlike last year, results were not announced on the same day as the lottery.
Picture for represtentional purpose only
While parents are still anxiously waiting, activists are sensing foulplay as the department had clearly mentioned that the results would be announced on the very same day. "This is absurd because the entire idea of having the lottery system conducted online was to get immediate results and avoid mistakes," said Arvind Paranjape, from the Anudanit Shiksha Bachao Samiti (ASBS). He added the fact that results could not be announced immediately was maybe because the department was still trying to verify documents.
"The department had already rejected hundreds of forms at the time of online application. So, clearly they have followed all checking protocols. Then why are they checking those again? Looks like the department is trying to buy time," added Paranjape. This time a total of 280 schools were part of the RTE online admissions process and over 10,000 seats are up for grabs. Sadly, the process received only 4,000-odd application forms.
According to the figures made public on Saturday evening, seats were allotted to 2,593 application forms in the first round of admission. These forms were divided between 190 pre-primary schools and 255 primary schools (across boards). "The remaining 1,503 forms that have not been allotted seats this time will be part of the second round of admissions," said an official from BMC education department, on condition of annonimity.While some parents are now gearing up to get their children's admissions confirmed with respective schools, the wait to find a suitable school for parents of 1,503 children is still not over.
"My son's form got rejected the first time because of some missing documents. But our second attempt was successful. Now, that his application form did not get selected in the first round of admissions, I'm worried that his form will get rejected again," said Rizwaan Ahmed, one of the parents. A resident of Jogeshwari, Ahmed has applied for schools in the vicinity and is keeping their fingers crossed.
