UP government drops mandatory Aadhaar requirement for children under RTE admissions

The Uttar Pradesh government has eased the admission process for underprivileged children in private schools under the Right to Education (RTE) Act by removing the mandatory Aadhaar requirement for children and both parents, allowing applications to be submitted using the Aadhaar card of only one parent, a TOI report stated.

Issuing a fresh set of directives, Additional Chief Secretary for Basic and Secondary Education Partha Sarthi Sen Sharma told TOI that financial assistance under the RTE Act will be provided only to Aadhaar-seeded bank accounts of parents, details of which must be mentioned while filling the online application form.

“Our effort is to make ‘ease of living’ a reality as far as possible, especially for the families genuinely belonging to disadvantaged groups, in the spirit of RTE,” Sharma said.
According to the order issued to district magistrates, who also serve as presidents of the District Education Project Committee, admissions under Section 12(1)(c) of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 will be determined district-wise, up to 25% of the total capacity of the lowest entry class—either Class 1 or pre-primary—in all unaided private schools operating in the district.

The order also specifies age criteria for admissions. Children aged three years or above but less than four years will be admitted to nursery, those between four and five years to LKG, and those aged five to six years to UKG. Children between six and seven years will be eligible for admission to Class 1.

All document verification will be carried out at the level of the Block Education Officer and the Basic Shiksha Adhikari. Applications approved by the district magistrate or chief development officer will be processed for school allocation through an online lottery conducted on a specified date.
The lottery process will be completed in two stages. In the first stage, randomisation, verified and approved applications will be shuffled online and assigned lottery numbers. In the second stage, allotment, applicants will be allotted schools in batches of 100 based on their stated preferences and in ascending order of their lottery numbers. The final list will be approved by the district magistrate.

(With inputs from TOI)