State fails to define admission process for out-of-school Mumbai kids

A July 4 stategovernment survey revealed that 8126 students in Mumbai are not in school The next step according to government officials is for schools to admit such students who live in their vicinity but there is no clarity on how the admission procedure needs to be executed or how these children who may have lost touch can be accommodated a month after the new academic session has already begunAlso read A daylong survey in Maharashtra to find outofschool childrenTeachers who conducted the July 4 state survey also filled out enrollment forms for the outofschool children However the government has issued no directives on how these kids will be admitted PicShadab KhanJust like the survey which was conducted without any training being given to those collecting the data schools are worried that the admissions process will be chaotic On Saturday around 14000 teachers and education department employees were sent out to 100200 households each to look for children who are currently not attending school and the reasons for the sameThey were also asked to fill out an enrollment form for those children These forms will reach the BMC education office by today According to Shambhavi Jogi BMC education officer once these forms are in place the process to enroll students in nearby schools will begin But Jogi conceded there are no guidelines as to how this process needs to be undertakenldquoWe havenrsquot got any directives from the state government on what the next step should berdquo said Jogi ldquoAs of now we are taking the initiative to ensure that these children whose names have been listed under the outofschool category get admitted to schools as per the Right to Education RTE guidelinesrdquo she addedJust do itSchools on the other hand are dreading another round of admissions without any official orders or directives from the state ldquoEven when the RTE quota admissions were first implemented in 2011 there was chaos because schools were simply asked to admit children without any clear directives having been givenAlso Read Only 11 of 4000 schools in Mumbai follow all RTE normsIt looks like admitting outofschool children will end up being as problematic for schoolsrdquo said the principal of a school in Andheri East He added that they are still waiting to hear from the BMC about the process to admit children However when midday spoke to officials from the state education department they said the onus of issuing the requisite directives lay with the local education officersldquoAccording to the RTE the power to implement as well as punish schools for not following RTE rules and regulations is with the BMC and they have been told to ensure age appropriate admissions for children who are not attending schoolrdquo said P R Pawar deputy director system analytics Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan SSA the body responsible for implementing the RTE in every stateHe added that it is the responsibility of schools to train children and admit them to a class appropriate to their age and ensure they donrsquot lag academically Schools however are angry at this new job being laden upon them almost a month after the academic session has already begun ldquoBasically the education department comes up with new ideas and expects schools to act on themWe donrsquot run our schools on a whim Training children who havenrsquot attended school to gel into the daily routine will also be a huge task Students will also have to be counselled regularly and most schools in the city donrsquot have a counsellorWhat will such schools dordquo asked a teacher from another state board school As of now the schools are waiting to hear from the BMC or the state education department to clear the confusion over the admissions