Lucknow: The District Magistrate of Lucknow, Kaushal Raj Sharma invited the management of City Montessori School (CMS) on Tuesday 8th August, to discuss the admission of children into CMS under the Right to Education (RTE) Act 2009. Two issues were discussed in this meeting : (1) admission of 15 children from last year’s allocation, and (2) admission of 296 children from this year’s allocation.

On the first point, following an order by the honourable High Court, the DM had appointed a committee to investigate CMS’s claim that all the 15 children were ineligible under the RTE Act 2009 and the UP RTE Rules 2011.

Based on the committee’s report, the DM wrote to CMS on 3rd July 2017 agreeing that 11 of the 15 children were ineligible, but declaring the remaining 4 children eligible for admission. However, at the 8th August meeting, the CMS management explained to the DM the various criteria for the eligibility of children for admission under the RTE Act, and, in writing explained how each of the remaining 4 children were also, in fact, ineligible for admission in the allocated CMS campuses.

The major criteria for a child to be eligible for admission in a private unaided school under the RTE Act 2009 and the UP RTE Rules 2011 are :

1. The child should reside within 1 Km of the allocated school (be within the neighbourhood), as per Rule 4(1) read with Rule 7(3) of the UP RTE Rules 2011.
2. The person should be a ‘child’ as defined in Section 2(c) of the RTE Act 2009, i.e. the person should be of the age of 6 to 14 years old.
3. The child should not already be studying in another school, as they do not have a right of transfer to a private unaided school under free and compulsory education, as per section 5(1), the proviso to section 8(a), and para 3(c) of the Statement of Objects& Reasons of the Act.
4. The child should be either ‘Economically Weaker Section’ or belong to a designated ‘Disadvantaged Group’, as per section 12(1)(c) of the RTE Act 2009, and these terms are defined in the Uttar Pradesh Govt. Order dated 3rd December 2012.
5. The child should be admitted to the school nearest to his residence, since the RTE Act’s underlying purpose was to provide each child the nearest school to his home in the neighbourhood.

Neither the four children from the DM’s remaining allocation of last year nor the 296 children allocated for admission to various CMS campuses in 2017-18 are eligible because they all violate one or (usually) more than one of the above eligibility criteria.

Out of the list of 296 children sent for admission by the BSA this year, only 167 children came to CMS for admission by 31st July. On the basis on the information provided by the parents, it was made clear that among these 167 children:

• 117 are not in the neighbourhood, thus 70.1% are ineligible due to not fulfilling the neighbourhood criterion of 1 km from residence under section 12(1)(c) of the RTE Act 2009 and Rules 4(1) and 7(3) of the UP RTE Rules 2011.
• 135 are below the age of 6 years, i.e. 80.8% are ineligible as they are not ‘child’ as per section 2(n) of the RTE Act.
• 89 are already paying fees and studying somewhere, so that 53.3% are ineligible because of studying elsewhere, as per section 5(1) and proviso to section 8(a) of the RTE Act
• Of the 117 living outside the neighbourhood, 91 are doubly ineligible because they are also below age 6 years and thus not “child” for the purpose of free and compulsory education, as per section 2(c) of the RTE Act, 2009 and Constitution of India as both say that the act is applicable only for children of 6 to 14 years of age.
• Of the 117 children who are outside the neighbourhood, 62 are again doubly ineligible because they are also already studying in another school and have no right to transfer to a private unaided school, as per section 5(1) and proviso to section 8(a) of the RTE Act, 2009.
• Of the 117 children who are outside the neighbourhood, 38 are yet again doubly ineligible because while general caste, they are also not of economically weaker section.
• Many children are ineligible for 3 or 4 reasons, i.e. do not fulfil 3 or 4 criteria of eligibility. For example, 41 children are outside the neighbourhood and also below age 6 and also studying in another school, and these are therefore triply ineligible for admission in our school, under the RTE Act 2009.

These points have been written in detail, explaining about each and every individual child, and the letters delivered to the BSA and the DM with copies to the Director of Basic Education. The honourable DM has promised to enquire into these points and take appropriate action as per law.

Rule 8(6) of the UP RTE Rules 2011 threatens schools that “if a school is found having sought or received reimbursement on the basis of concealment or wrong claim, it will have to deposit twice the amount so received” together with “proceedings under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.