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The Karnataka Hhigh Court recently upheld the new Right to Education (RTE) rule that lays that admission into a private unaided school under the RTE quota will be permissible only in the absence of an aided private school or a school established by the Government or local authorites within the neighbourhood.
A special leave petition was filed by the RTE Students and Parents Association challenging such amendment. The challenge was made on the grounds that it defeats the objective of the RTE Act to end class-wise segregation of students.
The Petition highlights the most essential aim of the Act which is to acheive social justice via integration of classrooms upon econimic basis. It is further claimed in the petition that the existemce of government and prifate schools have led to the creation of a segregated system with two tiers. The children from a higher economic background get an opportunity to study in Private schools, where the teaching is usually conducted in English. The students from relativley backward backgrounsa are forced to be enrolled in government schools where the teaching is done in vernacular languages.
The petition filed in the Apex Court challenging the HC's order also contended:
"Section 12(1)(c) was meant to break this de facto system of educational apartheid by integrating classrooms, and aiming to achieve social justice by guaranteeing diversity in the educational sphere from a very young age. Far from being a conditional or contingent obligation dependent upon whether or not the government had set up its own schools in a neighbourhood or not, therefore, the 25% obligation was at the heart and soul of the vision of the RTE Act."
It further said that the obligation under Section 12(1)(c) on a private school to admit at least 25% students is not "contingent or conditional" on the absence of a government or aided school nearby. The claims in the Petition were supported by such statistical reports recording a drop of applications under RTE to have fallen by 92% after the introduction of the amendments. It is hence alleged to have had a negative impact, while negating the objective of the formation of the Right to Education Act.
The Supreme Court on the above considertions issued a notice on the Plea presented before the Court.
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