Karnataka: Cabinet Gives Nod To Amend RTE Act; To Give First Preference To Govt Schools

In a remarkable move by Karnataka cabinet regarding amending admission rules of RTE act is to increase enrolment in government schools of the state. The state cabinet on December 5 gave its consent to the proposal of making changes to the act, making compulsory for the parents to reach nearby government school prior to applying in private schools, reported Bangalore Mirror,

New RTE Act

As per new rules, the parents can send their children to private schools under RTE act only if they couldn’t find any government schools within the 1km distance of vicinity. According to new set of rules, government will now give priority to government schools over private schools. Moreover, the RTE act allocates reservation of nearly 25% seats for students from weaker section and disadvantaged communities in private school.

To avoid this, the state government amended the act, by providing privileges to these children under RTE act in private schools, in the absence of government school. The Education Minister briefed The Times of India about the amendment after the cabinet meeting that “The primary intention of RTE is to provide education to all class of students. For students from BPL, its free of cost.” and also added that off lately the state, had allowed parents to acknowledge children in private schools. Despite having government schools in vicinity, enrolment ration has been dropping drastically.

Karnataka is following footsteps of Kerala and Tamil Nadu

Earlier these RTE seats were allotted only to private schools and were paid by the state government, where there was a mandatory quota set aside for these children. However, Karnataka is not the first state to amend the RTE act, previously, states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu have also implemented such laws yielding positive results regarding the number of children enrolling in government schools. As per data available in Human resource Department, Karnataka has gradually flourished under RTE act in recent years. And accordingly, the state stands third in the country with 39,577 received on March 5 2018.

The Logical Indian Take

By the RTE amendment, government schools will have a new lease of life and would work towards improving their strength in the schools. As per data available to Live mint, government schools are falling short by 11.2 million enrolments in the year 2015, despite having schemes like free books, socks and shoes, bicycles and other commodities. With this change, hope government schools can breathe a sigh of relief.

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