NEW DELHI: After months of debating the issue and seeking the law ministry's opinion, the HRD ministry on Tuesday finally issued guidelines about screening of children at the time of admission under the Right to Education Act.
HRD minister Kapil Sibal said, "We have taken the law ministry's clearance to issue the guidelines on screening. The RTE Act will be amended later. Had we gone in for an amendment on screening now admissions the next academic year would have suffered."
Making it clear that no school would be allowed to do profiling of students based on their parents' education, the new guidelines allow schools to have categorization based on a "rationale and just" basis. But within the categories schools will not be allowed to conduct interviews either of students or parents. Admission will be done entirely on a random basis through draw of lots.
Schools have also been told that their objective and categories should be put in the public domain and be included in the school prospectus. For instance, there can be rational categories for alumni and siblings. At the same time, minority educational institutions like madarsas and vedic pathsalas have been left out of the provisions of RTE Act. However, institutions run by minority groups that fall under the definition of school as provided in the RTE Act will have to comply with screening as well as other provisions of the legislation.
The categorization will be limited to 75% of children while 25% reservation to children of economically weaker sections will be given without any screening and on the basis of random selection through draw of lots. The HRD ministry is likely to issue another set of guidelines about screening in residential schools later. Many top residential schools have been asking the ministry for guidelines before next year's admission process starts. The HRD ministry-run Navodaya Vidyalayas, which too are residential, have been opposed to the provision of no-screening and giving 25% admission to underprivileged children in the neighbourhood on the ground that they cater to poor children.
HRD minister Kapil Sibal said, "We have taken the law ministry's clearance to issue the guidelines on screening. The RTE Act will be amended later. Had we gone in for an amendment on screening now admissions the next academic year would have suffered."
Making it clear that no school would be allowed to do profiling of students based on their parents' education, the new guidelines allow schools to have categorization based on a "rationale and just" basis. But within the categories schools will not be allowed to conduct interviews either of students or parents. Admission will be done entirely on a random basis through draw of lots.
Schools have also been told that their objective and categories should be put in the public domain and be included in the school prospectus. For instance, there can be rational categories for alumni and siblings. At the same time, minority educational institutions like madarsas and vedic pathsalas have been left out of the provisions of RTE Act. However, institutions run by minority groups that fall under the definition of school as provided in the RTE Act will have to comply with screening as well as other provisions of the legislation.
The categorization will be limited to 75% of children while 25% reservation to children of economically weaker sections will be given without any screening and on the basis of random selection through draw of lots. The HRD ministry is likely to issue another set of guidelines about screening in residential schools later. Many top residential schools have been asking the ministry for guidelines before next year's admission process starts. The HRD ministry-run Navodaya Vidyalayas, which too are residential, have been opposed to the provision of no-screening and giving 25% admission to underprivileged children in the neighbourhood on the ground that they cater to poor children.
Source: Times Of India
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