Through the Right to Education (RTE) Act, the Bihar government has announced that it would take serious action against almost 4,600 private schools in the state that did not meet admission requirements. The relocation follows numerous requests of the schools to declare and fill their approved seat capacity, which officials said were disregarded.
The Bihar Education Department has reported that of the 4,602 registered private schools, 4,602 had not completed or revised their intake capacity in the department’s online portal by the 202627 academic year, although there were a number of reminders and deadlines. This has consequently impacted the admission process of thousands of students, particularly those in the less economically strong segments of society.
In the RTE Act, the schools maintained by the government are required to give the needy children seats and give complete information regarding the number of seats available to the needy children to make sure that there is transparency and fairness in the admissions. Nevertheless, the officials reported that quite a number of schools did not complete their data on the seats or did not even take part in the online admission process.
According to the Additional Chief Secretary of the Education Department, schools had several chances to meet the requirements, with the last deadline being the year 2026, in January. Nevertheless, thousands of schools were still non-compliant. The defaulting institutions are now instructed to be served with show-cause notices by district education officers.
In the event that schools do not offer satisfactory explanations within the stipulated time, then departmental action will be taken against the schools strictly. Depending on the severity of the violations, possible measures are fines, revocation of recognition, or cancellation of RTE approval.
The problem has also been a hindrance to the admission of students wishing to enter the university under the RTE quota. Department estimates show that this year, the department received over 65,000 RTE admissions applications, although over 34,000 remain waiting verification, a significant number of which are because of school incompleteness.
According to education professionals, the harsh approach of the government is required to uphold the rights of students and ensure that there is transparency in admission processes. Failure by schools to make disclosures of seats directly affects children who belong to weaker sections, as they are the ones who benefit through the RTE provisions.
The government of Bihar has repeated that all recognized schools are bound to follow all the rules related to admission. The governments have threatened that they will not show mercy to institutions that still refuse to obey the government directives.
The crackdown is supposed to facilitate the admission process, enhance the accountability process, and increase the implementation of the RTE Act throughout Bihar.
