Parents suffer as technical snag hits RTE online registration in Pune

Parents of underprivileged children faced difficulties over the last two days in submitting online registration forms for school admissions under the Right to Education (RTE) quota.

Repeated attempts to submit online forms failed due to a technical snag in the system. The resumption of registration process on Saturday brought some relief to parents.

This year, 1,16,803 seats are available under RTE in Maharashtra, as against 1,26,119 seats in 2018.

“For the last two days, I have been trying to fill up the online registration form for my daughter for junior kindergarten on the RTE portal. However, the system hangs when I search for schools near my residence. I took the help of a friend, but even that did not help,” said Anand Parkhe, who works as a peon in a private company in Hadapsar.

Another applicant, Ramprakash Kamble from Warje, said, “Two years ago, I registered my elder son to a private school through RTE admissions and now I am trying to register my younger son. The RTE portal is very slow and many a times the page hangs while conducting the registration process. Also, when we go to the schools after getting selected through the lottery process, the school administration does not cooperate with us.”

Mukund Kirdat, spokesperson of Aam Aadmi Parents Union, said, “The approach of government officials and school administration is not at all supportive for parents. Every year there are snags and glitches during the admission process. This year, users faced a technical snag and so, we complained about it to the education department on Friday.”

Kirdat said that the technical problem comes while selecting the location on Google Maps in the online form while choosing schools near the residential address. There is a mismatch in the system and parents filing the form do not understand it and give names of schools which are far away from their residence.

Sunil Kurhade, education officer, Pune zilla parishad, said, “There were technical issues since the last two days and on Friday, we received complaints from some parents regarding it. So, we have forwarded the issue to National Informatics Centre (NIC), the company that manages the site, and asked the firm to sort it out as early as possible. Most probably all the technical snags will be resolved by Monday and the registration process will be completed smoothly.”

The RTE Act was enacted in April 2010, and every year, the online registration process begins in January. However, this year, the process got delayed and the registration started on March 5 in Maharashtra. Last year, only 55 per cent of the total number of seats in Pune district was filled through the RTE admission portal.

RTE seats in Maharashtra

•Seats in 2019: 1,16,803

•Seats in 2018: 1,26,119

•Seats in Pune district in 2019: 16,619

•Seats in 2018: 16,293

•Seats under RTE in private schools in Maharashtra: 8,976

•Seats under RTE in private schools in Pune: 930