Ahmedabad HC asks 16 schools to reserve seats for poor

Gujarat high court on Friday directed 16 top private schools of the city, which were selected as model schools to implement RTE Act, to keep 25% seats vacant in the primary section for students belonging to economically weaker sections.

These 16 private schools were selected as model schools to implement the Right to Education (RTE) law by admitting 25% of total students, from the poor strata of society. However, Jagega Gujarat Sangharsh Samiti, an NGO, claimed that these schools did not grant admission to poor students and filed a PIL demanding proper implementation of the RTE law.

These schools cited various reasons for not filling up the quota. The reasons cited by them were receiving fewer applications, not fulfilling the criteria, the minority status, etc. However, the court has decided to evaluate all contentions at the final stage of hearing and asked the schools and the petitioner NGO to submit their suggestions for implementation of the law to the state government, said petitioner's counsel Parul Joshi.

Earlier, it was discussed that the state government's allocation of Rs 10,000 towards fees for each student is not enough so far as admission in these premier schools is concerned, because these schools charge fees in lakhs.