Safe seats

Patna, Jan. 21: The decision of reserving 25 per cent seats for the underprivileged does not seem to have gone down too well with everyone.

The human resource development (HRD) department had recently passed a circular asking the schools to reserve seats for the underprivileged.

The schools, on the other hand, have said they do not have a problem in implementing the order, as they “respect the government”. However, they said there should be no unnecessary interferences of the government.

This decision is according to the Right to Education Act. It was supposed to be implemented on April 1, 2010, but that could not be done. The implementation would be done April 1, 2011 onwards.

Association of Independent Schools, comprising some of the CBSE and ISCE schools, is going to hold a meeting on January 22 this year to discuss the issue. The directors and principals of different schools have expressed worries that there could be unnecessary interferences from the side of the government. They are afraid that the quality of the education across schools may degrade in the process.

Sources said schools want some compensation as not taking fees from 25 per cent of its students would affect them financially.

Sources said the central government might pay 65 per cent to the schools for the 25 per cent children, while the state government would pay about 35 per cent.

The central government is about to pay about Rs 3,000 a year for every child.

The state government is still to come up with the amount it would pay.

What is also worrying the school authorities is that Rs 3,000 and some additional amount from the state government is too little for every student.

Vice-president of the association J.R. Sharma said: “We respect the government’s decision but there should be no undue interferences from their side. Nothing should bring down the quality of the school.”

Sources said even the managing committee members across the schools would be from the government and not from the schools itself.

School authorities have expressed apprehensions that this move may bring down the quality of these schools, which could then be equated with the governmet schools.

Sharma added: “National Federation of Independent Schools of India had a meeting in New Delhi on December 23, 2010, which had been attended by the Delhi chief minister Sheila Dixit and CBSE chairman Vineet Joshi. It was said schools in Bihar should not be having tests for children seeking admission in Nursery or Class I. The admission process should be random through a lottery system, in the presence of guardians.”