For a transparent admission process

Admissions to schools will be ‘random’ once the Right to Education Act (RTE) is
implemented in Karnataka.

The RTE, brought into force by the Central Government last year, will standardise education processes with the aim of levelling the playing field for all socio-economic groups.

Though the full rules for implementation are yet to be finalised by the Karnataka government, the Act imposes certain frameworks nationwide to ensure equality.

“The RTE Act is anchored in the belief that availability of equal educational opportunities to children belonging to different social and economic background will reinforce the idea of equality enshrined in our Constitution,” says the official admissions guidelines document for the Act, released by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development.
To this end, the Act contains a provision banning any “screening processes” — meaning any interviews, tests or other selection methods that put particular students or socio-economic groups at a disadvantage.

“There shall be no profiling of the child, based on parental educational qualifications,” the guidelines say.

Schools cannot deny admissions for lack of proof of age, because applications are made later than the extended periods prescribed for admission, or on grounds of religion, caste, race or place of birth. Schools are prohibited from collecting any capitation fees.
The admission process begins with the physical placement of schools.

In respect of children in classes one to five, a school serving a neighbourhood must be established within a walking distance of one km. For children in classes six to eight, a school must be within a walking distance of three km from the neighbourhood.

Applicants from such neighbourhoods are then split into two broad categories, with at least 25 per cent of student placements reserved for students from weaker sections and disadvantaged groups. Schools fill these places under a system of random selection.

The Act also stipulates that the disadvantaged students be provided with free and compulsory elementary education till completion.

Schools must ensure that they are neither segregated from other children in their classrooms nor taught in classes held at different places and timings.

They must not be discriminated against in any manner with regard to entitlements and facilities such as textbooks, uniforms, extra-curricular activities and sports.

For the other 75 per cent — or less, if more than 25 per cent are admitted voluntarily from disadvantaged groups — schools may further categorise applicants, but individual students within such pools must be selected at random. Criteria for these categorisations must be made public and formulated on a “rational, reasonable and just basis”.

The Act also specifies timings of admissions. Schools must allow an extended period of admission of six months from the date of commencement of the academic year. Where a child is admitted to a school after the extended period, he or she must be eligible to complete studies with the help of special training, as determined by the head of the school.

The reforms come amid criticisms of Karnataka’s admission processes. An official report as recently as 2008 concluded that the State faced a “serious social problem”, with parents put in a “terribly confused state” and many children traumatised by discriminatory interviews.

“It is a matter of great concern that... we have not been able to provide opportunity for admission to children who come from middle class families, in schools of their choice,” said the report, led by the State’s commissioner for public instruction.

The commission’s recommendations, however, were never adopted, leaving the injustices uncorrected.