2012-04-13 15:00:10

India’s minority run schools hail court ruling


(April 13, 2012) India’s minority educational institutions on Friday hailed a Supreme Court ruling that they do not have to reserve a quarter of the places in their schools for poor students. India’s apex court on Thursday upheld the constitutional validity of the 2010 Right to Education Act (RTE), which mandates that private schools should allocate 25 percent of their places to provide free education for poor students up to the age of 14, but said this quota would not be applicable to institutions run by minority groups. “Our educational institutions are generally geared towards poor students and we admit more than the 25 per cent limit,” Father K.J. Antony, director of the All India Association of Catholic Schools, said in New Delhi. He said the ruling helps minority educational institutions because it will get rid of interference from government agencies which they say was adversely effecting administration and management. “We will have the freedom to choose students for admission in our schools and not be forced to admit children of government officials,” he said. Archbishop Leo Cornelio of Bhopal said students already admitted under the act will be allowed to continue. From the time of the RTE came into force the Christian federation of Madhya Pradesh state, Isai Mahasangh and the Catholic Council of Bishops had been objecting to the misuse of RTE by the state government that appointed a representative in the management committee of Minority Institutions. Isai Mahasang is now asking the state government to withdraw its representative and stop interfering in minority run institutions.








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