No takers for 33,618 seats in various private schools in the state allotted even after 2nd counselling

Despite second counseling, there were no takers for 33,618 seats in various private schools in the state allotted under The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act or Right to Education Act (RTE) for the academic session 2019-20.

Indore has maximum such schools that have been registered under RTE but find no takers as 4,200 seats remain empty. This is highest number of seats in the state that found no takers. Not far behind, Bhopal has 3,444 seats that got no takers despite second round of counselling.

Third in line is Ujjain, where 2,038 seats have no takers. The surprising difference can be seen in increased number of seats as many students backed out of admissions hoping to get a better school in second counselling.

Sadly, nobody took the allotted school under second counselling increasing the number of vacant seats to the number initially recorded after 15 days of first counselling.

Not even one district in the entire state has recorded 100 percent admissions under RTE. Niwari has recorded the highest admissions and yet there are 36 seats which have no takers. Dindori has recorded second highest admissions, but there are still 40 seats that have no takers.

One cannot conclude that all the students already found the school or parents did not want to send their children to school, as the education department had received 2,35,901 applications under RTE this year.

“Not allotted a quality school of their choice is a major reason behind people not registering admission despite having gone through the entire process of allotment and being selected in the lottery system,” district program coordinator (DPC) Akshay Singh Rathore gave the possible reason.

The same reason was discussed in the meeting on suggestions for Education Policy 2019 headed by Manish Verma, Joint Director of School Education Department, Indore. “There are many private schools, which are running simply for getting grants through RTE and lacking in quality education and infrastructure,” he said.

“Many private schools are not even at par with government school education, then why will parents choose them over government schools,” Verma said.

Under their suggestions, the department even suggested a modification in RTE in education policy to reserve seats in only renowned and quality school.

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//Over 33,000 seats go empty, a brief view

District                  Allocated             Admission           No of vacant seats

INDORE                                11049                    6849                       4200

BHOPAL               13429                    9985                       3444

UJJAIN                  8324                       6286                       2038

BARWANI            6947                       5261                       1686

GWALIOR            5296                       3842                       1454

JABALPUR           5067                       3699                       1368

DEWAS                 6401                       5219                       1182

DINDORI              835                         795                         40

NIWARI                                373                         337                         36