The director of the state education department had announced last week that students belonging to scheduled cast (SC), scheduled tribe (ST), other backward class (OBC), nomadic tribes (NT) and with family income below Rs 1 lakh were eligible for admissions under RTE scheme.
Earlier, department was providing admission through caste as the criteria, now they back and explained that statement as a 'technical error'.
A notice was issued by the education department last week stated that only students from the SC/ST/OBC/NT and denotified tribes having famil income below Rs 1 lakh would be eligible to apply for admissions into private unaided schools under RTE scheme.
The Govt notification created agitation among parents and schools alike as the open category students from the economically weaker sections were ignored completely.
The director of State primary education, Mahavir Mane clarified, "The notification will be reissued after correcting the error. No caste and religion barriers will influence admissions under the 25% reservation scheme of the RTE. A fresh notification will be issued at the earliest,"
The Principal of a private schools said, "If the government is creating cast barriers in admissions then why they have set the income ceiling? It was a bit confusing. We are now waiting for the new notification so that we can go ahead with the admission process and also consider the open category for this scheme."