Chhattisgarh’s ‘seat fill’ rate under RTE climbed by 14.5 per cent in three academic sessions since inception of MIS portal: Report

Raipur:
The effective implementation of Right To Education (RTE) Act in Chhattisgarh
has boosted the student enrollment over the years, with ‘seat fill’ rate
climbing by 14.5 per cent in three academic sessions since the inception of
online MIS portal–established in 2017 for streamlining the admission process
under RTE.

This
was revealed in a report titled “10 years of RTE in Chhattisgarh”
prepared by Indus Auction, a New-Delhi based NGO. The report was released by school
education minister Dr Premsai Singh Tekam at his residence office here on Thursday.
The success of the provision in increasing inclusion and also improving
learning levels across categories of children has been accessed in this report.

“In
2019-20, the highest numbers of RTE seats were registered in Bilaspur while the
seat fill rate has been topped by Mahasamund with 85 per cent in the same
session”, the report stated.

The
efforts made to promote girl education in Chhattisgarh has also yielded
positive results, with the gender gap to total students ratio reduced from 10
per cent in 2010-11 to 3 per cent in 2019-20. Besides, even during the
difficult times of corona pandemic, a total of 52,160 students of the state got
admission under RTE in the academic year 2020-21.

Briefing
about the objective of report, school education minister Dr Premsai Singh Tekam
said “Chhattisgarh state has always excelled in the implementation of RTE
Act. The report aims to uncover the 10-year journey of RTE in the state and has
been prepared on the basis of information available on the RTE portal
established in state. The report assesses improvement in the level of education
and social inclusion of the children belonging to economically weaker, socially
disadvantaged and deprived sections of the society, who are getting the benefit
of this Act.”

“Also,
based on the evaluation, some suggestions have been made on how existing
processes can be improved and create other systems through which the objective
of improving learning levels and inclusion can be achieved”, he added.

Currently,
a total of 3, 01, 317 students continue to get education under RTE in
Chhattisgarh. As per state’s RTE portal, 6511 private schools are registered
under RTE with 83, 006 seats for the academic year 2021-22. With the completion
of second and final round of lottery for AY 2021-22, as many as 47,382 admissions
have been processed recording a fill rate of 53.6 per cent, the report stated.

As
per the observations made in the report, 60 per cent of students enrolled under
the Act are from economically weaker sections and 40 per cent from socially
disadvantaged groups in the state. The online MIS portal, established in 2017
for streamlining the admission process, initiating lottery system and ensure
timely redressal of grievances from various stakeholders, has improved the seat
fill rate in the state.

The
report further states that students in elementary classes in RTE seats score
better grades in the academic assessments compared to those in higher classes.
54 per cent of the students across the state are learning their curriculum in
Hindi, 44 per cent in English and 2 per cent bilingually.

It
has also been mentioned in the report that process of amount reimbursement from
state to schools has shown significant improvement in the last three years
reducing the delays and time lapsed in transferring amount to beneficiaries. At
present, in the session 2020-21, a total amount of Rs 161.5 crore has been paid
directly from the state level to the accounts of schools that was pending
amount from the year 2014-15 to 2019-20.

Indus
Action Senior Lead Madhuri Dhadiwal, Senior Manager Madhu Verma and Manager
Laxmi Priya R were also present on the occasion.