Schools heave sigh of relief, CM favours RTE extension

Delhi schools heaved a sigh of relief and welcomed the decision of the Delhi High Court, which made it clear that there was no stopping the nursery admission process currently underway.

In first comments, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said: “We are going through the order. The government is considering options.” She said personally she would like the ambit of the Right to Education Act expanded to include children under the age of six.

Ameeta M Wattal, principal of Springdales School and vice-chairperson of National Progressive Schools Conference, said: “We support the court order, the autonomy of schools has to be maintained.” She said had there been any delay in the order, it would have been a big issue for parents.

With the High Court ruling that the RTE Act does not apply to nursery except the provision to reserve 25 per cent seats for the economically weaker sections, Madhulika Sen, chairperson of the Forum of Public Schools, said “that is what we have been saying all this while that the RTE does not apply to nursery and KG.”

Sen also raised the point of autonomy of private unaided schools and said “the other 75 per cent should be left to us”. She said the forum held a meeting on Tuesday.

The petitioners, on the other hand, called the order “a partial victory”. Ashok Agarwal, counsel for petitioner Social Jurist NGO, said they will move the Supreme Court in the next two weeks regarding extension of the RTE.

Source:http://www.indianexpress.com/news/schools-heave-sigh-of-relief-cm-favours-rte-extension/1076670/

RTE Act does not apply to nursery, rules HC

ORDER Schools can continue with admission process; HC says govt must consider extending RTE to nursery.

Ending the uncertainty over the ongoing nursery admission process in private unaided schools of the Capital, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday ruled that the Right to Education Act is not applicable to nursery schools. But the court also said “it is the right time for the government to consider” applying the Act to nursery classes as well.

Disposing PILs filed by NGO Social Jurist and Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights, a bench of Chief Justice D Murugesan and Justice V K Jain did not quash the two notifications, which the petitioners claimed had allowed private unaided schools to formulate their own admission criteria.

“We hold that the guidelines issued by the Government of India and the order issued by the Government of NCT of Delhi under Section 35 of RTE Act, 2009, do not apply to 75 per cent of the admission made to pre-elementary (pre-primary and pre-school) classes by private unaided schools, though they do apply to to the remaining 25 per cent admission made by such schools to such classes,” the bench said, referring to the 25 per cent reservation for children belonging to the weaker section and disadvantaged group.

“Though we have held that the Right to Education Act is not applicable to nursery schools… there cannot be any different yardstick… for education of children up to the age of 14 years, irrespective of the fact that it applies to only elementary education. It is the right time for the government to consider the applicability of Right to Education Act to the nursery classes as well, as in many of the states admissions are made right from the nursery classes and the children so admitted are automatically allowed to continue from Class I,” the bench said.

Last week, the Central government informed the High Court that the Right to Education Act applies only to “elementary education”, which is defined in the Act as education from Class I to Class VIII. Provisions of the RTE Act, the government said, are available only to children in the age group 6 to 14 years and do not affect primary education.

In its order, the bench said, “The importance of education is per se applicable to every child, right from admission to nursery classes till it completes the eighth standard.” While noting there is obligation on the state to provide free and compulsory education to children and the responsibility of the institution to afford it, the bench said “educational institutions cannot be allowed to run as teaching shops” since that “would be detrimental to equal opportunity to children”.

Asking the state not to ignore observations made in the judgment, the bench said the state should consider making necessary amendments that will allow benefits of the Right to Education Act to a child seeking admission in a nursery class.

Source:http://www.indianexpress.com/news/rte-act-does-not-apply-to-nursery-rules-hc/1076667/0

RTE only for 6-14 age group: Govt

Nursery admission No bar on screening procedure by schools for students below age 6: Govt to HC

The Central government informed the Delhi High Court on Wednesday that the Right to Education Act applies only to “elementary education” which is defined in the Act as education from Class I to Class VIII. Provisions of the RTE, the government said, are available only to children in the age group 6 to 14 years and do not affect primary education.

“There is no bar on a screening procedure by a school for students under six years of age,” the government counsel said in response to a specific question put by the bench of Chief Justice D Murugesan and Justice V K Jain.

The government filed an affidavit after it was asked by the High Court whether admission to the nursery class was regulated by the RTE Act.

The High Court has been hearing arguments on a PIL challenging two notifications by the Central government and the Delhi government allowing schools to formulate their own criteria for admission to the nursery class. The admission process has been stalled due to the pendency of the petition. The High Court had remarked that the admission process for 2013-14 could be affected by its final decision on the petition.

The government affidavit stated that “there are certain provisions of the Act, which relate to children below six years and beyond 14 years. These specific provisions, however, are those related to drop-out children and children from economically weaker sections.”

The government affidavit also mentions Section 11 of the RTE that speaks about pre-primary education for children above three years of age. The HRD Ministry affidavit says that state governments “may have their own policies governing admissions in pre-primary class”.

Additional Solicitor General Rajeeve Mehra also told the court that the Delhi School Education Act and notifications issued under the Act were there to regulate pre-primary education in Delhi.

“The affidavit is quiet on the question raised by the court about the utilisation of Section 13 in the Act. The HRD Ministry passed the buck to the state government to see the applicability in the last paragraph of the affidavit,” advocate Ashok Aggarwal said. Court said it will pass its order by next week.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/rte-only-for-614-age-group-govt/1073751/0

Drought hits academic terrain

Time table of 450 polytechnic institutes tweaked

In a direct impact of the drought in Maharashtra on the education sector this year, the time-table of the second term of more than 450 polytechnic institutes in the state has been tweaked by the Maharashtra State Board of Technical Education (MSBTE) to battle the water crisis.

MSBTE, which conducts examinations and declares results of polytechnics, has asked these institutes to shrink the second term by a week and conclude the final written examinations in two weeks by April 21. The examinations were earlier scheduled to end by May 9.

The board also announced that students need have to appear for examinations of two papers on single day for some part of the final examination.

Importantly, teaching and non-teaching staff of polytechnics have been asked to work even on Saturdays and Sundays and for two hours extra each day until term-end to ensure the stipulated minimum of 90 days of working to achieve the deadlines set as per the revised time table.

As per official records, MSBTE has around 489 affiliated polytechnic institutes for Engineering/ Technology which have 14,6,841 seats.

Speaking to Newsline, MSBTE director PM Khodke said polytechnics from at least half-a-dozen districts in Maharashtra were facing acute water shortage by December-end and the overall situation was likely to worsen in summer.

“We have rescheduled the time table of second-term of polytechnics in the wake of the water crisis. There are polytechnics from districts such as Beed, Jalna, Osmanabad, Nanded, Solapur and Nanded where drinking water is not available in institutes. Authorities concerned are not able to supply water to students in hostels. The situation is going to turn grim and therefore we have decided to alter the time table,” he said.

Khodke said a special squad would be formed to verify whether affiliated polytechnics have taken measures like working on weekend days.

The principal of Government Polytechnic Latur, Balbhim Kumbhar, said the water scarcity was likely to become more critical, and therefore his institute was complying with MSBTE norms.

The MSBTE move to alter the time table of polytechnics has not gone down well with a large section of the staff.

They questioned the rationale of changing the time table of all institutes across the state and raised doubts whether effective teaching-learning process would take place as the students and staff would be burdened with extra working hours.

Khodke, however, said it was a well-thought decision taken as a part of the contingency plan to address water scarcity in educational institutions.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/drought-hits-academic-terrain/1068646/0

Government Approved various Certification courses for Shahra Trust

Shri Mahadeo Shahra Sukrat Trust is a Public Charitable Trust duly registered by Registrar of Public Charitable Trust, Indore, and was formed in 1976 specially to initiate the corporate social responsibility initiatives of Ruchi.

Government of India has approved various certificate courses like “Beauty Culture and Health Care” and ”Fabric Painting and Warli Painting” which was conducted by Shahra Trust. The Trust initially undertook relief work for the underprivileged in the areas of health, education and other sectors at Manglia, Indore, Madhya Pradesh where the largest and first production plant of Ruchi is situated. Dinesh Shahra and Ankesh Shahra are part of Shahra Trust.