According to the Right to Education Act 2009, 25% of the seats in class I of all private unaided schools should be given free to children from weaker and disadvantaged sections. But this has not been implemented in Andhra Pradesh since 2010, which is a gross violation of child rights, said Narava Prakasa Rao, member of Right to Education Forum Southern States Steering Committee, here on Monday.
But he pointed out that based on a public interest litigation (PIL) on this issue, the Andhra Pradesh High Court had delivered a judgment on January 3, 2022, directing the government to implement the Act in letter and spirit.
Based on it, the government on March 28 had asked the schools to implement the directions as per the Act.
“We understand that as per the guidelines, the Department of Education has to create a web portal with vacancies in different schools and seek for applications 60 days before the commencement of the academic year. But to our surprise the department has neither created a web portal nor issued a notification for admission so far,” he said.
The private unaided schools have already advertised and are giving admissions to all classes and announced commencement of classes from July 4.
“We urge the Chief Minister to intervene and ask the officials concerned to address this issue immediately,” said Mr. Prakasa Rao.
“We have also written a letter to the CM, seeking his intervention,” he added.
