School denies kids admission over RTE rule

A wellknown school in Dadar has denied admission to a student who was allotted a seat under the Right to Education rule The Maharashtra State Commission for Protection of Child Rights MSCPCR earlier this week wrote to the civic education officer seeking an investigation and explanation Balmohan Vidyamandir says they followed all rules and blamed the system for allotting students with residences far from the permissible radiusWhile the commission has given the school a weekrsquos time to respond the matter has become a deadlock Parents are blaming the school and school authorities are blaming the system A 2017 High Court ruling stated that the student being admitted under RTE should be living within a 1 km radius of the schoolThe matter came to light when the father of Paritosh Surapalli who was among 16 students allotted seats at Balmohan Vidyamandir English Medium School CBSE in Dadar in the online RTE admission process for the academic year 202324 approached the Child Rights Commission through an NGO Paritoshrsquos admission was rejected on the grounds that he lived 26 km away from the schoollsquoChild lives too farrsquoBalmohan Vidyamandir counts actors sportspersons and other wellknown personalities as its alumni The school headmistress Babita Penta in her reply to the education inspector stated ldquoThe RTE Act 2009 stipulates 25 per cent admissions be made under the said Act in neighbourhood schools A list of allottees comprising 16 names was forwarded to our school for the academic year 202324 This was followed by individual letters issued to parents allocating seats in our school under the said quota However the allottee in question lives much beyond 1 km from the schoolrdquoThe headmistress has made individual representationsreplies for each candidate rejected midday is in possession of these lettersAccording to Devidas Mahajan education inspector of Mumbai South Zone there are three students whose admissions to the school were rejected on grounds of distance from their residence to the school Mahajan has mentioned in his clarification to the deputy director of school education that the distance between residences and school for Paritosh Surapalli is 26 km and for the other two candidates Swanand Patil and Shivanksh Pawle the distance is 25 km Patil and Pawle too have approached the authoritieslsquoWe were given allclearrsquoMeanwhile parents and activists said the distance criteria should be relaxed when the seats are vacant ldquoWe were allotted seats in the first list verification of documents and everything was done and they were cleared for admission Later we were informed by the school that we do not fit in the distance criteria But when the seats are still vacant they can admit my son We were officially allotted the seatrdquo said complainant Santosh Surapalli Paritoshs fatherOnly three RTE seats filledldquoAs per our information and the headmistressrsquo reply to the education department it has come to light that out of 16 seats under RTE quota in the school only three were filled by Balmohan Vidyamandir and the remaining 13 seats are vacant The 1 km distance requirement is not rigid as may be seen from a quick glance through the guidelines Children who live nearby should be given preference But the circledistance criteria needs to be widened if there arent enough candidates or if the seats are vacant The goal is to give admission under the RTE quotardquo said Nitin Dalvi education activist and representative of the Maharashtra State StudentParent Teacher Federation According to Dalvi Balmohan and many such private schools deny admission to deserving and eligible candidates citing the distance criteriaTalking to midday Mahajan said ldquoWe have called all complainantsparents of students who were allotted seats at Balmohan Vidyamandir CBSE and we will conduct a hearing for them on Monday Once we hear them out and identify their issues we will decide on the next course of action We are in touch with the school and the parents We are already working on resolving the matter and ensuring the students do not sufferrdquo26kmDistance child lives from the school