Vikash Sharma

Bhubaneswar: Admissions of students under Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) quota in private schools in Odisha will now get online, said School and Mass Education Minister Samir Ranjan Dash on Saturday.

While talking to reporters, Dash said the move aims at bringing in transparency. Earlier, the department had received reports regarding irregularities in admissions at some places in the State.

"We had earlier come across some problems in admissions of students under EWS quota. The process to streamline the admission is underway and soon Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik will launch it," said Dash.

Worth mentioning here that Odisha Abhibhabak Mahasangha has been demanding 25% reservation for students belonging to poor and disadvantaged sections in private English medium schools in the State.

As per the Section 12(1)(c) of the RTE Act, all specified category or private schools must reserve 25% of their seats for children belonging to EWS from the neighbourhood and provide them admission from Class I onwards.

Odisha Abhibhabak Mahasangha said that the association has been fighting for this for the last six years. However, finally the State government's School and Mass Education Department issued a formal notification on January 8 in mentioning about a provision for 25% reservation of seats for children belonging to EWS in schools.

"The State government is going to take steps to ensure that the admissions are done through a dedicated portal. We hope that it will ensure transparency as it will be monitored by the department and other officials," said Prasanna Bisoi, a senior official of the association.

(Edited By Suryakant Jena)

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