After several delays, the first ever online RTE admissions in the city will kick-start on Thursday. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will conduct the admissions for the 25% seats reserved in unaided non-minority schools for children from economically weaker sections of society.
This is the first time that the civic body is conducting admissions for seats reserved under the quota. A total of 309 schools have registered with the BMC for the online process. Of these, 27 are non-state board schools.
Parents can fill the admission forms online between April 10 and 30. To assist them, BMC has set up 26 help desks across the city, which will be open between 11am and 5pm till the end of the admission process in May. "Each applicant can select three schools in his/her neighbourhood of up to 3km," said a senior BMC official.
Admission will be awarded on the basis of a lottery, which will be conducted after the documents have been verified. Children aged between two and seven, depending on the entry level as claimed by the school at the time of registration, will be eligible. "Parents will be notified by an SMS sent to the mobile phone number mentioned by them in the form," said the official.
While the online process is expected to ease the admission ordeal that parents otherwise have to go through, parents will be required to submit a copy of the form and other related documents at one of the guidance centres. "If they fill the form at a place other than the guidance centre, parents will have to submit a copy of the form and related documents at the nearest centre," said a notification by the BMC.
The admissions, which were to be conducted in February, have been postponed several times due to confusion between the deputy director of education and the BMC on who will conduct them. However, parents and activists are hopeful that due to the process being online, schools won't be able to turn them away.
"Because the names of schools and the seats available are listed on the website and the process is centralised, the schools will have to give admission to deserving parents and not turn them away as they did earlier," said Avisha Kulkarni, RTE activist.
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