Jamshedpur, Dec 19: Ahead of the start of the second stage admission process to the entry level classes in the private English medium schools the district administration has assured announcing the admission guidelines in next five days time, apparently.
The Deputy Commissioner (DC) Dr Amitabh Kaushal, during a meeting with the parents� group, assured that on Monday he would announce the criteria that would apparently be followed by the private English schools in the admission process for the 2014-15 academic year.
�DC has assured that he would ensure justice to all the stakeholders and in this connection he has set Monday date for the announcement (of the admission criteria),� said Dr Umesh Kumar, functionary of the Jamshedpur Abhibhavak Sangh (JAS) following meeting with the DC on Thursday.
The outfit of the parents� group is insisting on the district administration to make sure admission of the candidates is done through manual lottery in place of the Saras 2.0 software, being applied by the private English schools for admission since last three years, following the implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act 2009.
The Saras, developed by Jupiter Software and Systems Pvt Ltd, works on data fed to it. It mixes the given names and takes out lists for a maximum number of five times after which a printout is taken.
The parents� group has been alleging all along that the software is a flawed technology and it should be replaced by manual lottery.
�In our petition that includes the copy of the Supreme Court�s direction of 2013 to the schools, in ensuring transparent, rational and tampered free criteria for admission, has been attached,� said Dr Kumar suggesting the need for replacing the flawed technology with the more transparent manual lottery.
Much to the concerns of the parents� body, the private schools have indicated that they would stick to the Saras mechanism.
�We too have adequate documents favouring our methodology of admission and we will furnish to the authorities as and when demanded, if any,� said a functionary of the Jharkhand Private Unaided English Schools Association.
Out of the near 45 private English schools in the town only two cradles, DAV School Bistupur and Dayanand Public School practice manual lottery for admission to Nursery, LKG and UKG.
The software based random lottery admission will kick off in several schools after December 25.