Under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, if the parents are found to have submitted false income documents, their child’s admission is cancelled. However, there is no clear policy on how to fill the resulting vacant seats, leading to ambiguity on this issue. 

As a result, complaints have emerged that some private schools are taking advantage of these vacant seats by admitting students in exchange for hefty fees or donations.  

Over the past two years, in major private schools in Ahmedabad, documents provided by parents were independently verified and submitted to the District Education Officer (DEO). The DEO then summoned the parents for a hearing and cancelled admissions found to have been obtained fraudulently.  

A number of fraudulent admissions have been cancelled in Gujarat. While it is necessary to cancel admissions obtained with false income documents, the cancellations leave vacant seats. Parents and advocates have demanded that these vacant seats be allocated to other underprivileged or general-category children who previously could not secure admission during the centralised process.  

There is also a demand to allow deserving students from Class 2 to Class 8 to fill the 25% vacant seats in private schools.

On the other hand, complaints persist that some private schools exploit these vacant seats by admitting students for high fees or donations.

Under the RTE Act, the state government conducts a centralised online process every year for free admission into Class 1. After allocating admissions across districts in two to three rounds based on applications, documents, and categories, it is stipulated that if it comes to light during verification that the parents’ income exceeds the eligible limit, the admission should be cancelled.

Also read:

Right to education: How to apply for free education in Gujarat?