SIO South Maharashtra has submitted Memorandum to government officials at various places including Deputy Director of Primary Education,(Maharashtra state), Mr.Govind Nandede,Pune and a press release regarding the demand of date extension of online process.

online form submission of RTE started from 1^st March 2015 in Maharashtra, till date very few applications are uploaded throughout the State against the target of 25% Quota.  It indicates the gross negligence, inefficiency, lack of co-ordination of Director of School Education and its Regional Offices.  The Program is floundered on ground because of irresponsibility shown by concerned authorities.

Under the RTE Act, economically and socially disadvantaged children, as well as those with disabilities, can be admitted in Class I or at the pre-primary stage of private unaided and aided minority schools. These children receive free education, including textbooks, and other facilities.

In 2013-14, more than 50% reserved RTE seats had remained vacant in the Kolhapur district, after which the zilla parishad had asked the district schools to take a survey in 1km radius schools to identify any RTE beneficiaries and same thing happened with other districts also.

One of the government officials, on a promise not to publish his identity, said, “We are implementing the online admission system for the RTE quota for the first time this year across schools in state. The process which started has received very few applications against 25% Quota and is not a good sign. To increase the awareness, govt officers are not visiting homes within 1km radius of the respective schools to improve the response.”

“I am struggling hard for my Childs admission under 25% Quota of RTE but local administration is not co-operating. I have applied for Income certificate 7days ago but the local administration is not ready to give me income certificate before the stipulated time, on the contrary I am unable to apply for RTE quota as I don’t have income certificate. Our Govt should take strict action against the irresponsible and lethargic attitude of local administration government ” Said Shaik Imran, resident of Pune.

The school education department had implemented centralized online admission process for RTE quota on an experimental procedure in Pune and Mumbai divisions last year, which was claimed to be successful. The department has replicated the same model across the state from 2015-16. But the actual situation is the Web site https://rte25admission.maharashtra.gov.in/adm_portal/users/rteindex is running very slow and gets hanged several times due to inadequate web server capacity.

“There is sure possibility that due to technical & administrative inabilities, hundreds of students will unable to fill the form, We strongly demands that govt should extend the date of form filing for 1 more month. If the govt is failed to take the corrective actions then SIO will go for statewide agitation” Said Mohammad Ali, Secretary Students Islamic organization of India, South Maharashtra.