'Don't harass schools over RTE,' says School Education Minister Deepak Kesarkar to parents

Mumbai: The School Education Minister of Maharashtra, Deepak Kesarkar, on December 12, 2022, stated that parents must not pester any school over a student's admission via the Right to Education.

Kesarkar was addressing Mumbai’s top educationists at the Free Press Journal's Mumbai School Survey Awards held at Lower Parel’s St Regis Hotel. “Schools can only approve those students under RTE who are approved by the government. Parents can not force schools over the same,” he said.

The Cabinet Minister confirmed to the parents that no worthy student would be left out by the government while considering the RTE admissions. “The process may take more time than expected, but it will definitely happen,” he assured.

The Minister made the comment after he started receiving complaints from several school principals about parents harassing them to admit their children into the school under RTE. He also mentioned that even a group of parents had reached out to him complaining that schools were not admitting their kids through RTE.

Daljit Kaur, Principal, Guru Gobind Singh English High School, Vikhroli, said, “Parents have been emailing me asking to admit their children into the school via RTE. Despite replying to them multiple times that the decision lies in the hands of the government, they keep on getting back to me with the same issue.”

The principal of Kalbadevi’s Mahapragya Public School said that it is understandable that parents are concerned about their children’s admissions. “But it doesn’t mean that they keep on coming back to us with the same set of questions. We have informed them that they must reach out to the government for the same and not us,” said principal C L Madhuri.

The Free Press Journal discovered that another school from Andheri West was also being pestered by emails from parents about the same issue. “It gets tiring and frustrating at times to tell parents the same thing over and over again,” said the principal of the Andheri-based school.

Parents, on the other hand, say that the only reason for them to constantly reach out to schools with the same query is the worry about their children’s admission. A parent from Bandra East said that when her child’s school didn’t revert with a satisfactory reply, he had to take the matter to Deepak Kesarkar.

The parents are hoping that the government steps into the matter and takes the right decision on the issue. “Everything now lies in the hands of the government,” said Rupa Chaturvedi, a parent from Andheri.