Parents and students of Mary Ward stage a protest at Kargil Chowk in Patna on Wednesday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, Feb. 23: The Right to Education Act — aimed to provide free and compulsory education to all — is proving to be a thorn in the skin of not only the school authorities but also the schoolchildren and their parents.

Parents claim school admissions — an unnerving process at the best of times — is proving to be more troublesome this year because of the implementation of the act. The reservation of seats for students from economically backward homes is keeping deserving candidates out of school, said a parent.

To prove their point and lodge a protest with the state government, parents of Mary Ward Kindergarten School students, who were not admitted in St Joseph’s Convent High School, formed a human chain at Kargil Chowk, along with the toddlers

“My child has studied at Mary Ward school for the past two years. She has been dreaming of studying in St Joseph’s. But we are now being informed that she can’t be admitted because of the provisions of the act,” said Farhat Khan, a distraught parent.

Khan added: “The school says it has only 40 seats out of which 10 per cent will be reserved for underprivileged students. Last year there were 60 seats. This year there are only 30. Where will our children go?”

A source said the school had taken admission tests, ignoring the provisions of the act. Then, it failed to absorb students from its own primary wing, pleading helplessness under the provisions of the act. The parents also claim that the provisions of the act were implemented suddenly and the children have now been left in the lurch.

“All the children scored well in their examinations. We are not aware of why the school has excluded our wards,” said Nandini Gupta, a mother.

Richa Prakash, another mother, said: “This is the first time that so many students have been left out. We do not know where to get them admitted, as the admission process in most of the schools is finished. We do not have any other option.”

The results of the admission test conducted by St Joseph’s Convent High School came out on February 19. For the first time 55 to 60 children of Mary Ward have not been admitted in St Joseph’s.

Distraught parents claim they had to take the protest path out of desperation.

Their wards have been unable to get admission anywhere else, as there are no vacancies in most of the schools of the capital. Some schools have also rejected their admission because they are unable to fulfil several criteria such as residence within a kilometre of the school.