Rather than the successful admissions, the first day of the admissions under the Right to Education (RTE) Act witnessed confusion and complaints from the applicants and late afternoon no registration link was available on the website.
Instead, the registration link was available on another website -- isrte25admission.maharashtra.gov.in. The miscommunication was done on the government's part.
“The biggest error was declaring the wrong website, because of which thousands of people will not be able to fill the forms, as not everyone is aware of the old website. Besides that, many other errors were observed while filling forms. In the morning, a few parents who tried filling forms told us that in the options on religion and category, there is no option of Scheduled Caste at all…,” said Vivek Bansode, district head of Republican Vidyarthi Sena.
“The column on annual income was not always visible… that’s why, in many forms, the parents’ annual income has been saved as Rs 0. All these problems with the online forms will cost parents dearly,” added Vivek Bansode, district head of Republican Vidyarthi Sena.
Mukund Kirdat from Aam Aadmi Party, another activist, has also written to the state education department about the mix-up and miscommunication.
“Many parents told us that they were unable to type in Marathi… in case of children of widows, the department has asked for income certificate of fathers. It has been made mandatory to mention religion. There is an option for ‘don’t know mother’s name’ but there is no option for ‘don’t know father’s name’. Also, in case of children of divorced women, they have taken into consideration that those students may not have local address proof as many would be living in their mother’s maternal home, but what about children of separated but not officially divorced mothers? That number is far greater, but the department has not paid any attention to it. It looks like the education department itself needs some teaching,” he said.
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