75% quota seats in Mumbai schools stayed vacant this year

Times of India: Mumbai: Thursday, January 30, 2014.

Over 78% of the seats reserved for children from socially and economically weaker sections of the society remained vacant in schools located in the northern region of the city this academic year. Around 73% quota seats were not filled in schools in the western suburbs, followed by 67% vacant seats in south Mumbai schools. Of the total 12,818 quota seats in city schools, nearly 75% seats remained vacant this year.

Data acquired from zonal education offices following an RTI query revealed that most schools in the city have failed to comply to the Right to Education (RTE) norms. The RTE

Act compels schools to reserve 25% of their seats for underprivileged children.

In the 208 schools in the north zone, a total of 5,296 seats are reserved for underprivileged children, of which 4,140 remained vacant last admission season. Worst still, 140 of these schools-over 65% -did not admit a single student under the quota. A majority of these schools have claimed that there has been no demand for the reserved seats from students from the underprivileged section.

In the western suburbs, of the 5,246 reserved seats in 189 schools, 3,840 were vacant and over 125 schools did not admit a single candidatein the western suburbs too. In the south zone, of the 2,276 seats in 95 schools, 1,530 seats were vacant under the quota. Of the 95 schools in south Mumbai, 55 have not admitted a single underprivileged student, revealed the RTI.

Many schools in the city claimed that they did not receive a single application for admissions under the quota and a few schools even admitted that they are yet to implement the RTEin their school. "If there is no demand from students of the weaker section, the state has failed to create awareness. They should be publicizing the facility available to students in slums and other regions about who are eligible to seek admissions under the quota. The department should also seek action against schools who claim that they are yet to implement RTE," said Chetan Pednekar, Maharashtra Navnirman Vidyarthi Sena member who filed the RTI query.

An education department official, however, claimed that most schools with vacant seats are Marathi-medium schools and people do not prefer these institutes.