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National
‘Amendment Bill clarifies role of management panels for minority institutions as being advisory' Boarding schools could be allowed income criteria as a category NEW DELHI: Schools could now be allowed to follow a “rational and non-discriminatory” system of categorisation of students. However, the selection would have to be random and transparent within the system. This follows the inability expressed by a majority of schools in taking in students without screening, as prohibited under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009. This broad consensus on categorisation of students emerged during a meeting between the Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal and a cross section of stakeholders comprising educationists, academics, principals of schools, as well as representatives of civil society and non-governmental organisations convened to elicit suggestions on the implementation of the provisions of the RTE Act. The objections over disallowing screening of students had been raised by private schools and even Kendriya Vidyalaya and Navodayas who pointed out that these schools had been set up to cater to a specific section of society, and if these sections did not benefit, the entire purpose of such institutions would be defeated. Briefing reporters after the meeting here on Saturday, Mr. Sibal said the categories [to benefit] could be single mothers, siblings, and alumni. Positive discrimination, too, does not violate the provisions of the Act. “But within these board categories, the selection will have to be random and transparent. We will allow schools to evolve categories as long as these are open to public scrutiny,” the Minister said. However, this is true only for schools at the primary level. The Ministry will come up with new procedures for boarding schools and those that take students from Class VI onwards. “Twenty-five per cent reservation will apply to all schools without any exception but boarding schools could be allowed income criteria as a category,” Mr. Sibal explained. The intention of the provision which prohibits screening of children for admission is to prevent schools from profiling children and parents on the basis of ability in deciding whether or not to admit a child to the school. Admission tests and interviews are generally a tool for eliminating children; these are sometimes designed to aid children from certain social and economic backgrounds, and thus tend to be discriminatory to children not belonging to such backgrounds, he pointed out. On the issue of implementation of RTE in minority institutions, Mr. Sibal said the Ministry had already introduced an amendment Bill in Parliament to clarify the role of school management committees for aided minority institutions as being advisory in nature. “The government has no intention of interfering in the right and process of religious education imparted in the madrasas. However, any section of religious minorities that also run schools will have to comply with the quality provisions of the RTE Act.” The Ministry will send out an advisory to all States and Union Territories so that the Constitutional guarantees under Articles 29 and 30 available to minority institutions are not violated. Similarly, the Ministry has impressed upon all minority institutions the importance of ensuring that the spirit of the RTE Act to provide quality education is observed. The meeting also decided to evolve an alternative method for the re-registering of schools as is required under the RTE Act as long as the system is aligned with the Act. Importantly, the Ministry will also come up with a procedure to ensure that insistence on proof of residence of the children under difficult conditions — such as street children and wards of migrants — does not become a cause of harassment during admission.
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