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Chennai, Oct 21 (IANS) PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss on Tuesday hit out at the Tamil Nadu government, alleging that the implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act in private schools has “failed miserably”, leaving thousands of underprivileged students deprived of their proper access to education.
Anbumani said the state’s recent notification inviting applications for admission has exposed its lack of foresight and planning.
“Under the RTE Act, the government has to issue a notification in March, accept applications in April and complete admissions by May. However, citing lack of central funding, the Tamil Nadu government delayed the process and issued the notification only on October 2,” he said.
As a result, the initiative has received applications for less than half of the available seats in private high and higher secondary schools, he said.
Anbumani commented, “This failure punishes the students for the government’s negligence.”
He further said that the state should have allowed both students yet to be admitted and those already enrolled in fee-paying schools to apply under the RTE quota.
“Instead, only those already enrolled were made eligible, leading to widespread confusion and inequity,” he said.
According to data cited by Anbumani, 65,306 applications were received for 45,721 seats in nursery schools, indicating strong participation. However, only 16,006 applications were filed for 34,666 seats in high and higher secondary schools, leaving around 18,600 seats vacant.
“This disparity clearly shows how high fees and rigid admissions rules keep poor children away from better schools,” he said.
The PMK leader also pointed out that the government is now facing a situation where more than 20,000 additional students have been admitted to nursery schools for whom the state cannot pay the fees, while funds for vacant high school seats will remain unutilized and will eventually be returned to the Centre.
“Is this what the DMK government wants – to waste education funds and destroy Tamil Nadu’s school system?” he asked.
“Today’s Tamil Nadu is not a model state in the field of education; due to wrong policies it has become one of the worst performing states.”
He urged the state government to reopen the admission process under the RTE Act and ensure that all eligible children benefit from the scheme without bureaucratic hurdles.
–IANS
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